Historical account of Iona : From the Earliest Period

da aao.iv mil 1&3&

niniiiiii

a31 18800CH7 169Ub

CALL No.

DA

, 179 - (8,

THE LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH

1

Date due

AN

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

IONA,

FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD.

BY L. MACLEAN,

Author of " Adam and Eve," or the Celtic proved to be the Primitive
Language, together with the Genealogy of the Gael, &c.

" Mar ghath 6oluia do m' anam fein
Tha sgeula na h-aimsir a dh' f halbh." — Ossian.

11 loua. has long demanded a volume— a book of its own."— JW Culloch.

THIRD EDITION, REVISED.

GLASGOW:

W. R. M'PHUN, PUBLISHER, 86, TRONGATL;

N. H. COTES, LONDON; W. WHYTJE & CO., EDINBURGH,

MDCCCXXXVIII.

Glasgow :— E. Khull, Printer to the University.

IH *ky

UNVERSIJV OF GUELPH

TO

JAMES SMITH, Esq.

OF JORDAN HILL,
TRESES OF THE ANDERSONIAN INSTITUTION OF GLASGOW, &C.

Sir,

In dedicating the subsequent compilation
of historical facts to you, nothing is farther from my
design than flattery. For twenty years past your
public character has been to me a subject of secret ad-
miration — a model of excellence, in my judgment,
worthy of all imitation.

The liberality of your education has thrown open to
you the policy- walks and gardens of Nature, and Na-
ture, pleased to see her green walks trodden, created
an appetite to partake of her abundant stores.

Knowledge, like fire, has a spreading quality— it can-
not be inactive and live : your knowledge found abun-
dance of kindred matter in the mechanics of your native
city, over whom you have presided so many years
with credit to yourself and benefit to them — fanning
and feeding the kindling genius — cherishing and nour-
ishing the budding sapling.

4 DEDICATION

r 1 have another reason, however, for sending^this
little work out under your protection, namely, your
hearty attachment to the interesting island lona, upon
which it treats, — your entertaining, in a compara-
tively apathetical age, a lively sense of the obligation
under which Great Britain lies to that small island.

That your sun may long soar in wonted majesty, to
illumine still and cheer with mild beams the pleased
satellites, is the sincere prayer of,
Sir,

Your humble Admirer,
THE AUTHOR-
glasgow, Juli/, 1&38.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Introduction — Definition, &c 1

CHAPTER II.

Description — Inscriptions, &c ..; 5

CHAPTER III.

History — The Druidical iEra — Some Account of that
ancient Religion, &c ...i.. 18

CHAPTER IV.

Landing of Columba, and his Proceedings in Iona, &c. 28

CHAPTER V.

A List of some of the immediate Disciples of Columba
— A Chronicle of Events connected with Iona, &c. 43

CHAPTER VI.

The state of things at Iona begins to decline — Iona
burnt by the Danes — Reformation ! — Devastation
— Horror — Murder — Original documents illustra-
tive of the history of Icolmkill, and the Bishoprick
of the Isles — Urnuigh Phaisdean Ii, &C 54

CHAPTER VII.

Iona viewed as a Place of Sepulture — Names of Scot-
tish Kings, and the manner of their death — Kings
of Ireland, of Norway, &c 104

CHAPTER VIII.

Brief Sketches of the Chiefs and Chieftains buried in
Iona, 119

ERRATA.

Page 103, line 13, for Aithair read Athair,
last line, for Atir read Air.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

I N A.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION DEFINITIONS, &C.

The title of Iona to fame will be disputed by no
one. Let us hear what two well known scholars
have to say on the subject of this interesting spot.
Their testimony is the offspring of much reading,
and an acquaintance with the early history of
nations. But all men have not this knowledge
at hand, nor the power to arrive at it: to put it,
therefore, within their reach, is certainly a desid-
eratum. The traveller who, perhaps, from far,
visits Iona without a previous knowledge of its
history, I pity. We can easily imagine a differ-
ence between the feelings of one who would visit
the field of Bannockburn with a knowledge of
its story, and of one who, losing his way, would
stumble upon it by chance, and quit it without
knowing what ground he had been treading.

The learned Dr Samuel Johnson thus expresses
himself: — ■" We are now treading that illustrious

B

IIIsToinc \L ACCOUNT

island which was once the luminary of the Cale-
donian regions, whence savage clans and roving
barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge, and
the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind
from all local emotion would be impossible, if it

were endeavoured, and would he foolish, if it were
possible. Whatever draws us from the power of
our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant,
or the future, predominate over the present, ad-
vances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far
from me and from my friends be such frigid philo-
sophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved
over any ground which has been dignified by
wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little
to be envied whose patriotism would not gain
force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety
would not grow warmer among the ruins oilona"
— Journey to the Western Isles.

Dr MacCulloch, a more recent traveller, is not
less enthusiastic. " It is not easy to wander
among these remains, uninfluenced by the recol-
lections they are calculated to excite. He who
can here abstract himself from the living objects
round him, and abandon his mind to the visions
of the past, will long after recur, with feelings of
pleasing melancholy, to the few hours which he
has spent among the tombs of lona?

" It is the antiquarian and moral history of
lona which constitute its great interest. Pennant

OF 10INA. .5

and Cordiner have been the historians ; and how
imperfectly they have performed their tasks, I
need not say. It is not very creditable to those
who might have done it long since, that Iona —
the day-spring of savage Caledonia — should so
long have remained an object for wandering tour-
ists to tell of; unhonoured, undescribed by those
who owe to it the deep debt of civilization, of
letters, and of religion ; untold by an iEbudean —
untold even by a Highland pen. Iona has long-
demanded a volume — a book of its own." — Highl.
fy IsL of Scotl. vol. iv. p. 147.

IONA.
Iona is known to the native Highlander by
four names :

1. Innis-nan-Druidhneach — The Isle of the
Druids.

2. It — The Island, by way of eminence.

3. li-Cholum-chille — The Isle of Colum of the
cell or cemetery. Cill — the " cell," and " Kil "
of perverters of Gaelic, signifies a cemetery or
burying-ground. Ii, in process of time, had gain-
ed so much celebrity as a cell, or burying-place,
that by and by it began to be known by that
name alone ; but after the saint had been trans-
lated and canonized, this Cill was, very naturally,
called after him, nay, on every occasion, superin-
duced to his name: thus — Coliimcille. The

I HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

Gaelic scholar knows that a noun governed by a
noun generally assumes the aspirated form; and
also, thai two or more nouns in apposition must
agree in case; — thus, Ii-choluni-ehille.

4. li-skona, pronounced cc-hona, the sibilant
being silent before the aspirate* Iishona — the
blessed, or sacred isle.* Insula gancta, seu Divi
Columbi,f &C.

Some, even of our Celtic clergy, have etymo-
logised Iona, "I-thonna" — the island of the waves ;
but this is not the worst specimen of the effects
of these clergy not being bound to study their
vernacular language before license. There is no
reason why it should in pre-eminence deserve the
appellation of the island of the waves, its neigh-
bour, Staffci, and even Tir-Ii being more the
sport of the Atlantic.

It were rather a wonder had superstition allow-
ed Iona to pass without some epithet, such as
blessed, or holy: we know that Lindisfern, al-
though but the child of Iona, is, to this day, called
Eilean naomh — the holy island. In course of the
following pages, I shall, however, rest contented
with " Iona," as being now the fashionable, and
always a euphonious name.

* Blessed art thou, O land — is sona thu a thir, Eccl. 10,
17- Shona is the aspirated form.

f Rerum Orcadens. Hist p. 153, et •• Heannarliadh Ii-
cholum-chille, — " Inuis tha beannuichU cheana."

OF I ON A.

CHAPTER II.

DESCRIPTION INSCRIPTIONS, &C.

" The sequestered Island of Iona," says a fair
writer, is interesting to a picturesque eye, from
its isolated situation, its panoramic views of the
green isles of Tiree, Coll, the Tresnish Isles, and,
above all, of that wonderful work of nature, the
Basaltic -caved Staffa: here that sun, which rises
and sets to all the world, sinks into the ' western
wave' with peculiar beauty." Iona is about three
miles in length, and one and a half in breadth.
Its eastern coast is separated from the south-west
of Mull, by a narrow sound of probably about
half a mile. The surface of the island is low,
rising into numerous irregular elevations, which
seldom exceed 100 feet: its highest hill may be
about 400. The population is from 450 to 500
souls. Iona has been described by so many that
I feel at a loss which account to copy. The
reader will, perhaps, justify me in giving the pre-
ference to Dean Munro and to Pennant, when I
inform him that the one gives the most ancient,
and the other the most copious account of any I
have been able to meet with,

f> HISTORICAL A.CCOUN l

Dean Munro, \n1h> wrote from actual inspection
in the vcar I549j savs of Iona, —

" Within this isle there is a monastery of
mounckeSj and ane other of nuns, with a paroche

kirke, and sundrie nther chapells, dotat of auld
by the kings of Scotland, and bj C'landonald of
the Iyles.

" This abbay foresaid was the cathedra 11 kirk
of the bishops of the Iyles, sen the tyme they
were expulsed out of the Isle of Man.

" Within this Isle of Kilmkill there is ane
sanctuary also, or Kirkzaird, callit in Erishe,
(Irish, Johnson's " Erse,") Relig Orain, quhilk
is a very fair kirkzaird, and weill biggit about
with staine and lyme. Into this sanctuary, there
are three tombes of staine, formit like little cha-
pels, with ane braide grey marble or quhin staine
in the gavill of ilk ane of the tombes. In the
staine of the ane tombe there is written in Latin
letters, Tumulus Regum Scoti^e, that is, the
tombe ore grave of the Scottes Kings: within
this tombe, according to our Scottes and Erishce
cronikles, ther laye Fortey-eight crouned Scotts
Kings, through the quhilk this ile hes been richlie
dotat be the Scotts Kinges, as we have said. The
tombe on the south side forsaid hes this inscrip-
tion, Tumulus Regum Hiberm.e; that is, the
tombe of the Irland Kinges: for we have in our
auld Erische cronikells that ther were four Irland

OF IONA. /

Kings erdit in the said tombe. Upon the north
syde of our Scottes tombe, the inscription bears,
Tumulus Regum Norwegle, that is, the tombe
of the Kinges of Norroway, and als' we find in
our Erische cronikells, that Ccelus King of Nor-
roway commandit his nobils to take his bodey and
burey it in Colmkill, if it chancit him to die in
the iles, bot he was so discomfitit that ther re-
mained not so many of his armey as wald burey
him ther ; therefor he was eirded in Kyles, after
he stroke ane field against the Scotts, and was
vanquisht be them.

" Within this sanctuary also lye the maist pairt
of the Lords of the Iles, with their lynage. Twa
clan Leans, with ther lynage. M'Kynnon and
M'Quarie, with ther lynage, with sundrie other
inhabitants of the haill iles, because this sanctu-
ary was wont to be the sepulture of the best men
of all the iles, and als' of our kinges, as we have
said."

Mr Pennant, who wrote in the year 1769?
forms here a very interesting continuation of the
worthy Dean's description: —

" Visit every place in the order that they lay
from the village. The first was the ruin of the
nunnery, filled with canonesses of St Augustine,
and consecrated to St Oran. The church was
58 feet by 20: the roof of the east end is entire,
is a pretty vault made of very thin stones, bound

UlsTniMc M. ACCOUNT

together by lour ribs, meeting in the centre.
Here we saw the tomb of the last prioress; her
figure is cut on the face of the stone; an angel

pn each side Supports her head, and above them
is a little plate and a eonib. The prioress oc-
cupies only one-half of the surface; the other is
idled with the form of the Virgin Mary, with
head crowned and miter ed; the child in her
arms ; and, to denote the Queen of Heaven, a sun
and moon appear above. At her feet is this ad-
dress from the prioress: Sane t a Makia. ora pro
me. And round the lady is inscribed — Hicjacet
Domina Anna Donaldi Terleti JUia quondam
Priorissa de IoNA, quae obiit ano. m° d° xi mo ; ejus
an imam Altissimo commendamus. (Here lies the
lady Anne, daughter of Donald M'Tearlach,
formerly Prioress of Iona, who died in 1511,
&c., whose soul we recommend to the Most
High.)

"Mr Stuart, who sometime past visited this
place, informed me, that at that time he observed
this fragment of another inscription, Hie jacet
MariotayF/m Johan: Lauchlini Domini dc * * * *
[Coll].

" Besides this place of sepulture, was another
on the outside, allotted for the nuns; win
a respectable distance from the virtuous recluses*
lii b in solitude, a frail sii

•• Advance from hence along a broad paved

OF IONA.

way, which is continued in a line from the nun-
nery to the cathedral; another branches from it
to the Bay of Martyrs ; and a third, narrower
than the others, points towards the hills.

"On this road is a large and elegant cross,
called that of Maclean, one of 360 that were
standing in this island at the reformation,* but
immediately after were almost entirely demolish-
ed, by order of a provincial assembly, held in the
island.

" Arrive at Reilig Orain, a vast enclosure ;
the great place of interment for the number of
monarchs who were deposited here ; and for the
potentates of every isle, and their lineage ; for all
were ambitious of lying in this holy spot. The
place is in a manner filled with grave-stones.

" I was very desirous of viewing the tombs of
the kings, described by the Dean of the isles,
and from him by Buchanan: the former says,
that in his time there were three, built in form
of little chapels. (Here follows what I have al-
ready quoted in the Dean's own words.) But of
these celebrated tombs, we could discover nothing
more than certain slight remains, that were built
in a ridged form, and arched within ; but the in-
scriptions were lost. These are called Iomaire
nan High, or, the Ridge of the Kings. Among

* Short Descr. of Iona, 1693 M.S. Adv. Library.

10 HISTORICAL A.CCO! M

these >toncs were found two stones, with Gaelic

inscriptions, and the form of a cross carved on

each: the words on one were. CTO% Dam/tail

Jhtasich) i. e. the cross of Donald longshanks:
the other signified the cross of Urchvine o'Guin.

The letters were those of the most ancient Irish

alphabet** Among the same stones is also the
following: Hie jacenl quatuor Priores de — ex
una oatione V. : Johannes^ Hugonius, Pctfricius:

* The first of these two inscriptions, for which Mr Pen-
nant was indebted to Mr Stuart, is certainly wrong given
here. From an accurate drawing, made by James Logan,
Esq., whose skill and fidelity in these matters are well
known, it appears, that what is now legible, is but a frag-
ment of a much larger inscription, in the old Gaelic char-
acter, and ran thus : — " on domail fata," &c. Without
entering into any minute detail on the subject, it may
suffice to observe, that there exist strong grounds for be-
lieving, that this is the fragment of the tombstone placed
over Alexander Macdonald, the second of the Glengary
line, who died by violence, and was certainly buried in
Iieiliy Orain, the family burying-place, in 1461. No one
of the inscriptions at Iona has been so much written of as
that under consideration. One reverend and learned gen-
tleman (Stat. Ace. Vol. X. p. 533), presuming, from er-
roneous information, that the inscription was entire, and
in Latin in place of Gaelic, reads it thus: M Mac-Donuill
fato hie ;" and then remarks, "as much as to say, that
fate alone could lay Macdonald here." — But enough of
this. Of the accuracy of the second inscription, also
furnished by Mr Stuart, we have at present no means of
judging.

OF IONA. 1 1

in decretis olim Bacularius alter Hugonius qui
obiit an. Dom. miles mo quingentessimo.*

" Mr Frazier, son to the Dean of the isles,
informed Mr Sacheverel, governor of the Isle of
Man, who visited Iona in 1688, that his father
had collected 300 inscriptions, and presented
them to the Earl of Argyle ; which were after-
wards lost in the troubles of that family.

" The chapel of St Oran stands in this space,
which legend reports to have been the first build-
ing attempted by St Columba.

" In Oran's chapel are several tombs, and near
it many more : within, beneath a recess, formed
with three neat pointed arches, is a tombstone,
with a ship and several ornaments. I forget
whether the sails were furled: in that case the
deceased was descended from the ancient kings of
Man, of the Norwegian race, who used those
arms.

* Mr Pennant remarks, that he is indebted for this in-
scription to Mr Stuart, and adds, in a note, that part of
the inscription was corrected by a friend. As printed, it
is impossible to make sense of it; but we may conjecture,
that originally it stood thus : " Hie jacent quatuor Priores
de Hy, ex una natione, viz. Johannes, Hugonius, Patricius,
in divinit. olim Bacularius, et alter Hugonius qui obiit an.
Dora. 1500 :" That is, " Here lie four Priors of Iona, all
of one clan, viz., John, Engine, Patrick, who was formerly
Bachelor of Divinty, and a second Eugene, who died in
1500."

12 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

u Near the south end is the tomb* of Abbot
MackinnoD and his father, inscribed) — Ha?c est
crux Lauchlini Mc, Fingon el ejus lilii Johannis

Abhatis do Hy facta an. doni. m" cceclxxxix. —
(This is the cross of Lachlan Mackinnon and his
son John, Abbot of 1 1 v. erected 1489*)

" Another of Macdonald of [slay and Kintyre,

commonly called Innes, or Angus Og, the chief
of the name. He was a strong friend to Robert
Bruce, and was with him at the battle of Ban-
nockburn. His inscription is, — Hie jacet corpus
Angusii filii Domini Angusii McDomhill de Hay.
(Here lies the body of Angus, son of Sir Angus
M'Donald of Islay.)

" In another place lies the gravestone of Ailean
nan sop, a ceatharnach, or head of a party, of the
name of Maclean; from whom is decended the
family of Torloisg.^ The stone is ornamented
with carving and a ship.

* Mr Pennant should have said Cross. The tomb of
Abbot Mackinnon is described at page 14.

f Mr Pennant has been misled here. The family of
Maclean of Torloisg, (now represented by Mrs Clephane
Maclean of Torloisg,) derives its origin from Lanchlan,
second son of that Lauchlan Maclean of Duart, commonly
called Lauchlan Mor, who distinguished himself so much
at the battle of Glenlivat in 1594, and was afterwards killed
in Ila by Sir James Macdonald, in 1568. Ailean nan Sohp
was granduncle to the first Maclean of Torloisg, and flour-
ished in the reign of James V.

OF IONA. 13

" A Maclean of Coll appears in armour, with
a sword in his left hand. A Maclean of Duairt
with armour, shield, and two-handed sword. And
a third of the same name, of the family of Loch-
buy; (Eoghan a chinn bhig.) His right hand
grasps a pistol, his left a sword.

" Besides these, are numbers of other ancient
heroes, whose very names have perished, and
they deprived of their expected glory.

" About 70 feet south of the chapel is a red
unpolished stone ; beneath which, lies a nameless
king of France. But the memory of the famous
old Doctor of Mull has had a better fate, and is
preserved in these words: Hie jacet Johannes
Betonus MsLclenorum. familiae medicus, qui mor-
tuus est 19 Novemb. 1651, Mt. 63. Donaldus
Betonus fecit 1674. (Here lies John Beaton,
Physician to the family of the Macleans, who
died 19th November, 1651, aged 63; Donald
Beaton erected this, 1674.

" The cathedral lies a little north of this en-
closure : it is in the form of a cross. The length
from east to west is 115 feet; the breadth 23;
the length of the transept 70. Over the centre
is a handsome tower, on each side of which is a
window, with stone work of different forms in
every one. On the south side of the chancel are
some Gothic arches, supported by pillars, 9 feet
8 inches high, including the capitals ; and 8 feet

1 \ HISTORICAL kCCOUNT

{ j inches in circumference. The capitals are
quite peculiar, carved round with various super-
stitious figures; among others is an angel weigh-
ing souls.

" The altar was of white marble, veined with
grey, and is vulgarly supposed to have reached

from side to side of the chancel ; but Mr Saehe-
verel, who saw it when almost entire, as.-urcs us,
that the size was 6 feet by 4.

" Near the altar is the tomb of the Abbot
M'Kinnon. His figure lies recumbent, with this
inscription round the margin: Hie jacet Johan-
nes Mac Fingone abbas de Hy, qui obiit anno
domini Millessimo quingentessimo cujus annus
propitietur Deus Altissimus Amen. (i. e. Here
lies John Mackinnon, Abbot of Iona, who died
in 1500, to whose soul may God be merciful.
Amen.)

" On the other side is the tomb and figure of
the Abbot Kenneth. (Kenneth M'Kenzie, of the
family of Kintail.) On the floor is the effigy of
an armed knight, with a whilk by his side, as if
he had just returned from the ' feast of shells' in
the hall of Fingal. Near the south end is Mary's
chapel.

" The monastery lies behind the cathedral. It
is iu a most ruinous state. In a corner are some
black stones, held so sacred, that it was customary
to swear by them, (because of Columbus' grave.)

OF IONA. 15

Boethius says, that this monastery, was built after
the defeat of the Scots, at the battle of Mundi,
a. d. 379-

" North of the monastery are the remains of
the Bishop's house.

" To the west of the convent is the Abbot's
mount, overlooking the whole. Beneath seem to
have been the gardens, once well cultivated ; for
we are told that the monks transplanted from
other places, herbs both esculent and medicinal.

" Beyond the mount is a square, containing a
cairn, and surrounded with a stone dike. This
is called a burial-place: it must have been in
very early times ; cotemporary with other cairns,
perhaps, in the days of Druidism, For Bishop
Pocock mentions, * that he had seen two stones,
7 feet high, with a third laid across on their tops,
an evident Cromleac? " &c. — Thus far the amiable
and accomplished Mr Pennant.

Mr Lumsden of Glasgow, in his " Steam-Boat
Companion," a most excellent work, says, " that
within the principal entry to the demesne of
Inverary Castle, there is a stone-cross, well deserv-
ing the attention of the antiquarian. It was
brought from Iona, after the reformation, and
served for some time as the Town-cross of In-
verary. The front and back are covered with
hieroglyphics, neatly finished, and in a high state
of preservation ; while the following inscription,

it;

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

tastefully executed, alto relievo, forms a very
appropriate ornament for one of the sides : — Haec :
est : crux : nobilium : videlich : Dondeani : Mac-
gyflechomgnna : Patrici : Filii : eius : et :
Mael more : Filii Patrici : Que : banc : crucem:
Fieri : Faciebat: — i. e. This is the cross of
noblemen, namely, Duncan Macgyllechomghnan,
Patrick his son, and Maelmore the son of Patrick,
who directed this stone to be made.

Andrew of Winton has handed down to us, at
least, one royal inscription. Writing of King
Donald, he says,

M In Icolmkill there lyes" lie,

And there thir verses men may see," viz.

Rex Donenaldus erat in Scotia quatuor annis
In bello miles strenuus ille fuit
Regis praidicti frater fuit ille Kenedi,
Qui Sconae fertur subditus esse neci.

Donald, who reigned over Scotland for four years :
He was a valiant soldier,
Brother of the said King Kenneth, who is said to have
been put to death at Scone.

This description, imperfect as it must be, will,
I doubt not, stir up serious reflections in some

minds "Weep on, O stranger! for he that is

low was brave; and his soul, like your own, was
a stream that flowed when the tale was mournful."
But will sorrow recall the dead ? Will the
cries of the living dispel their heavy slumbers?

or iona. 1 7

No! they still sleep on, they will not hear the
sound of the pipe, they will not hear the voice, of
Mactalla. But, traveller! they are only gone a
little before thee and me, to the land of rest — a
few more fleeting days on the silent swift-gliding
stream of time shall pass, and another will occupy
thy place and mine.

I cannot, perhaps, conclude this chapter better
than by an extract from the Rev. Leigh Rich-
mond's letter to his lady from Iona, in the year
1819. "Iona is delightful! You can form no
idea of the characteristics of every thing and
every body around me. The novelty, simplicity,
and singularity, — the tout ensemble, is indescriba-
ble. Here, amid the ruins of ancient grandeur,
piety and literature, surrounded by the graves
and mouldering grave-stones of kings, chieftains,
lords of the isles, bishops, priests, abbesses, nuns,
and friars, — the scene decorated with the fine and
romantic remains of cathedral, colleges, nunnery,
chapels, and oratories ; with views of islands, seas,
rocks, mountains, interspersed with the humble
huts of these poor islanders ! I am just prepar-
ing to preach to as many of them as can under-
stand English, in the open air ; — a rock my pulpit,
and Heaven my sounding-board; — may the echo
resound to their hearts."

H1STOUK Al, A.CCOUNT

CHAPTEK III.

HISTORY — Tin: DRUEDICAX .ERA — SOME ACCOUNT

OF THAT AM'IKNT RELIGION, &C.

Ix giving the History of Iona, from the earliest

period, one cannot avoid speaking for a little of
Druidical times, seeing this interesting sect had
a College or School of Theology in it for time
immemorial, till expelled by St. Columba: hence
the most ancient name of the island — Innis nan
Druineach — the isle of the Druids.

The term Druid is a corruption of the well-
known Celtic word Druidh, a magician, conjurer ,
or philosopher. It is the word used in our Gaelic
Bible for the magi, or " wise men," who came
" from the East to Jerusalem," to worship the
holy child Jesus.

The Druids were the priests or clergy of the
Celts. Their religion is allowed to have been of
the same antiquity with that of the Magi of Persia,
Brahmins of India, and Chaldees of Babylon and
Assyria.* These all sprung from the religion of

* Orig. contr. Cels. 1. b.—Dr Smith.

'

OF IONA- 19

Noah and of the antediluvians. Wherever the
Celtic tribes, who were the posterity of Japhet,
migrated, they carried this religion along with
them, and in no country has it suffered so little
change as in the Highlands and Islands of Scot-
land, — so little, indeed, that it made Caesar assert
that Druidism had its first rise in Britain.

The peculiar situation of the Highlands of
Scotland, together with the high value the in-
habitants put upon Liberty, preserved them from
being ever subjugated to a foreign yoke. The
Roman gods, and Roman eagle, were alike unable
to extend their reconnoitre over the mountains
of Caledonia. Here, therefore, were raised no
altars to their lame idols, — here were offered to
them no sacrifices. God had hitherto permitted
the scourge; but here, even at the Grampian
hills, he remembered his gracious promise to
Japhet.f This, then, accounts for the purity —
the originality — the orientality of the Celtic
character.

The religion of the Druids being derived from
Noah, we would expect to find it very simple : —
one God, no temple, no image, an altar of either
turf or stone, and an offering from the increase
of the fold or the flesh. But, alas ! the idea of a
pure spirit is too elevated for the grovelling mind

* Gen. ix. 27. Ni Dia Japhet, a mlieudachadh.

20 HISTORIC \i. A.CCO! M

of fallen man: like Job, "he goes forward and
cannot find him, backward and cannot perceive
him;" some object, therefore, must be found out
to represent Him. The Children of Israel fixed

upon a C all" — hut the Druids of Iona were more

noble: they fixed upon the sun, "the soul and
eve of this great world," and very appositely
called him Bea' uil, i. e. the source of all life.*

The sect of the Druids embraced, at fewest,
four grades; the Filea, or bard — the Seanachai,
or genealogist — the Faidh, or seer — and the
Cobhai, or Arch-Druid. Of the offices of these
severally, their names are a sufficient comment.
To the Arch-Druid, as to an oracle, every hard
and doubtful case was referred, and from his
judgment there was no appeal. The province of

* Dr Smith's History of the Druids. — Pythagoras, whose
philosophy bore a wonderful resemblance to that of the
Druids, is represented expressly to have heard the Gauls
and Brachmans, (see Clemens Alexandrinvs, Strom. 41.)
Again, Diog. Laert. Ere. Aristotle, Borlase, p. 73, asserts,
as an avowed and indisputable truth, that the philosophy
of Greece originated with the Celtae. In my English
translation of " Adam and Eve," I purpose to show, that
every dark name in Greek mythology, to a general reader
a sound without an idea, is a Celtic term. Our very learn-
ing has led us into error upon the subject of etymology.
It has tempted us to look for the rudiments of arts and
science at those to whom we are indebted only for improvt -
mod?, alterations) and corruptions*

OF IONA. 21

the bard was to celebrate the praises of heroes,
and to immortalize their name in song: with
his harp, and " the light of song," alternately, he
excited in the minds of heroes a love for virtue
and for glory. He also accompanied the warriors
to the field, to inspire them to deeds of fame,
and a contempt of death.

" A king, in Druidical times," says Mr Walker,*
" had a prince of the blood-royal for a companion,
— a Brehon,f to consult in all critical cases, —
a Druid to direct his conscience, — a chief Physi-
cian to superintend his health, — a Seanaehai to
consult in points of history and chronology, — a
Filea, or bard, to rehearse his own praises, and
those of his ancestors, — and an Ollamh-re-ceol,
with harp, to soften his pillow." The Greeks, we
find, by comparison, have borrowed a number of
their manners from the Celts. The delegates
sent by Agamemnon to Achilles found him play-
ing on this instrument.

" Amused, at ease, the god-like man they found,
Pleas' d with the solemn harp*s harmonious sound : —
With this he soothes his angry soul, and sings
Th' immortal deeds of heroes and of kings," — Pope.

Eocha, the twenty-fifth king of Scotland, was
killed by a Harper who lay in his bed-chamber.

* Walker's Irish Bardd.

I Brehon, a judge, corrupted Baron.

UL' HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

— Buchanan, Does this not remind ns of tin*

narrative of King Saul, and his Jiha, David?
Here I feel almost inclined to digress, and saj ■

word or two lor music*. My reason is, that some
of my countrymen, i«_niorantlv, begin to suppress
that noble species of it— the laments and pio-
brachds of our hills! J have no doubt this will
have the effect of causing the people to degenerate.
Music is part of the mould in which the character
of the mountaineer is formed. Music, even in-
strumental music, is countenanced by God, both
in heaven and on earth,* If a man, naturally
rough, becomes, for the time, softened by music,
and these times frequently renewed, habit may
take place of nature, and that man's character
will, to a certain degree, change. If this is
true of any music, much more so of the war-
like piob : its music forces its way irresistibly
to the heart, and there diffuses an ecstatic delight,
that thrills through every fibre of the frame,
awakens sensibility, and agitates or tranquillizes
the soul! I speak from experience. If by admir-
ing and conversing with holiness, one is changed
" from glory to glory," will the same law not
hold in other things ? Is it not by admiring and
taking a liking in evil, and in evil companions,

* M The four and twenty elders fell down before the
Lamb, having harps," frc Rev. v. 8.

OF ION A. 23

the half of our city youths are changed from mis-
chief to mischief ?

To say that music is incompatible with piety,
therefore, is sheer bigotry — sheer ignorance.

i • O Love ! Religion ! Music ! all
That's left of Eden upon earth !"

. The Druids had their high places and groves
— their " circle of loda" and " stone of power" —
their high feasts, and fiery ordeal.* The Arch-
Druid wore a rod, called Slatan Drui 'eachd or
magic wand, probably in imitation of that of
Moses. The whole mystery or science was com-
mitted to memory, but never to writing, and it
took one about twenty years to finish his course
of studies. Their precepts, notwithstanding,
were very few and very simple, namely: — To
reverence the Deity, abstain from evil, and behave
valiantly. The Druids believed in the immor-
tality of the soul ; but, as we may gather from old
poetry, their idea of a future state was much
mistified. Their heaven was called Flath-Innis,
the island of the brave ; — the common term for
heaven to this day in the Gaelic. This island, ac-
cording to the Gaelic description of it, spread before
the eye " like a pleasing dream of the soul ; where

* Jacob offered sacrifice on the mount, Gen. xxxi. 54.
Nor shall ye set up an image of stone in your land to bow
down unto it, Lev. xxvi. 1.

24 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

distance faded not on the Bight, and where near-
ness fatigued not the eve. It had its gently slop-
ing hills of green) nor <li<l it wholly want its

clouds: hut the clouds were bright and transpar-
ent; and each involved in its bosom the source
of a stream, which wandering down the steep, was
like the faint notes of the half-touched harp to

the distant ear. The Valleys were open and free
to the ocean; trees loaded with leaves, which
scarcely waved to the light breeze, were scattered
on the green declivities and rising grounds. The
rude winds walked not on the mountains ; no
storm took its course through the sky; all was
calm and bright; the pure sun of autumn shone
from his blue hall on the fields. He sat in his
mid-day height and looked obliquely on this
noble island. On the rising hill were the halls
of the departed — the high-roofed dwellings of
heroes."

The Ifurin (I-bhroin), or hell of the Druids
which, by the by, is the only word in our Gaelic
Bible still for hell, signifies the island of sorrow.
It was, of course, the reverse of the island of the
brave.

The Druids, for some generations, had been
at variance with the family of Fingal. In one of
the poems ascribed to Ossian (but of which Fer-
gus, the brother of Ossian, is the author), called
^ Dargo, the son of Drui Bheil" we have an

OF 10NA. 25

account of a terrible conflict.* The commence-
ment of this sublime poem shows that the Fingal-
ians by this time began to contemn Druidism.

" A sound comes by halves to my ear. It is
like the voice of a wave that climbs the distant
rock. It is the voice of Sruihan dorchds stream,
murmuring, deep in the vale of oaks. In the
bosom of its grove is the circle of stones. Dim
unfinished forms sigh within their grey locks
around it. The sons of the feeble hear the
sound, and, trembling, shun the awful shadowy
spot. The haunt of ghosts, they say, is there."
Mark what follows : — " But your voices are no
terror to the Bard, spirit of dark night, pale
wanderers around your awful stones. No; I
tried the strength of your arm when alive ; I lifted
my spear in battle against your mighty Dargo —
against the terrible son of Drui Bheil."

Here, let me reflect, that Druidical as Ossian's
poems are, they afford a lesson of charity even for
Christians of the 19th century. Some religious
denominations of our day leave no mercy for
brethren of another sect, nor would they willingly
be their companions in the next world. The
feuds of the Fingalians ceased at death. " The
feuds of other years, by the mighty dead, are
forgotten. The warriors now meet in peace, and

* " N sin cliaidh sirm an dail a clieile,
Sloigh nan Druineach, 's siol na Feine."— Seann Dan.

HI8TORIC iL A.CCOI M

ride together on the tempest's wing. No clang
of the shield, no noise of the spear is heard in
their peaceful dwelling. Side by side they sit,
who once mixed in battle their steel. There
Lochlin and Morven meet at the mutual feast,
and listen together to the song of the bards. Why
thould they any more contend, when the blue
fields above are so large, when the deer of the
clouds are so many? They look down on the
earth as they ride over it, and wonder why they
contended."

I shall merely further remark, that all which
goes to make the Highlander ridiculous, whether
as regards witchcraft, incantations, prescience,
and the like, is a remnant of Druidism.

They were so close and so cunning that the
honest and simple people were deceived by them.
They had probably ventriloquists among them,*
which art astonishes even in our own day, and
which I, for my own part, believe to have been
the famous oracle which bewildered worlds, lead-
ing them to worship stocks and stones. It is
generally believed also that the Druids were in

* In English we have familiar Spirits, in Gaelic, Lean-
nan sith, a fairy sweetheart. The Hebrew is schoel ob t
and means a consultcr with a bottle of shin, because the
person speaks with a hollow voice, as out of a bottle. The
Greek calls them vcntriloquos. — Goodwin's Moses and Aaron,
p. 175.

OF ION A. 27

some degree acquainted with the art of making
gunpowder. At any rate, they possessed a num-
ber of secrets which excited the admiration of
the ignorant, by whom the supposed preternatu-
ral knowledge of their priests was called Meur
Bhe'ul, or the finger of their deity, which, by the
by, is the root of the French word merveile, and
of the English word marvel.

28 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

CHAPTER IV.

COLUMN \ lands in THE HEBRIDES — RECEIVES \
GRANT OF ION A — FOUNDS A MONASTERY

SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL, &C.

From the brief sketch we have submitted of the
Druidical religion, it may easily be conceived
that the state of Scotland and Pickland, and all
the other neighbouring " lands" was by no means
enviable. The curse of " like people like priest,"
had fastened upon them — all that was once excel-
lent had now dwindled down to superstition and
will-worship. God's inscrutable and sublime
method of salvation was unheard of and unknown,
and our too credulous forefathers, consequently,
were perishing for lack of knowledge. But we
are now come to a more pleasing period in the
history of Iona.

In the year 563, one Colum M'Felim M'Fer-
gus, Latinized Columba, a Scotsman,* set out
from Ireland in a curach, and landed in the /Ebu-
da3, or Hebride Isles: his crew consisted of 12.
" These are the names," says a MS. in the Cot-

* Adamnani Vit. Columb. lil>. i.

OF IONA, 29

ton Library, " of the men who passed over with
Columba from Scotland, when he first went to
Britain,* — Baithen and Comin; Cobhtach his
brother, and Ernan his uncle; Dermit his ser-
vant, Rui, Fethuo, Scandal, Mocutheimne, Echoid,
Thorannu, Mocufir, and Cetea Ciarnan."

Upon Colum' s landing at Port-a-Churaich in
Iona, some Druids, in the habit of monks, ap-
proached him, and pretended that they were also
come to preach the gospel, and therefore request-
ed him and his followers to give way ; but Colum
discovered the imposture.

According to the annals of Ulster and of Ti-
ghernac,f which Archbishop Usher seems dis-
posed to follow, Colum applied for protection to
Conal, son of Comgal, king of the Dalriad Scots.
Conal, being a near relation, not only protected
Colum, but also made him a grant of Iona. Here
he founded that monastery which for centuries
continued to be the first seminary of learning in
Europe. Spottiswood says, that even in Columba's
own life-time, he founded 100 monasteries and 365
churches, and ordained 3000 priests or monks !
These monks or priests were termed Gillean-De :
sing. Gille-De — i. e. a servant of God, or follower
of God; just the same as the followers of Christ

* Vide Usher.

t 573. " Conail MacComgail, qui obtulit insulam Hy~
calumcille,"

DO DISTOBIC LL ACCOUNT

were called Gillean Criosd, or Christians, at
Antiock From this term (lillc-I)t\ the perverters
of Gaelic have made out " Kelede," " Keledeus,"
" knldee," &c.* To the last of these, however,
I must, for the sake of perspicuity, adhere.

Monastic establishments were now the order of

the dav. Oransav, the island which Columha's
curdch made out first, was made the second suh-
ject of a church and monastery, and next to it
probably Crusay, Hinba, Tir-Ii, Col, Bonaw, &c.
Cill-Ighean-Aoidh in Coll, where the ruins of a
monastery may be seen, must have been a nunnery,
I think, over which the daughter of Aodh and
sister of St Colgan presided.

The influence which religion had on the minds
and manners of men was, in the mean time, very
great. It reached even to the palaces of kings,
and some princes have preferred an heavenly to
an earthly crown. Constantine, king of Corn-
wall, united himself with Columba — renounced an
earthly kingdom, and became preacher of the
gospel. With his wealth he founded a monastery
of brethren at Govan. on the banks of the Clyde,
two miles below Glasgow, over which he was
Abbot. He suffered martyrdom for the faith in
Kintyre, and was buried in his own monastery at

* If historians would acquaint themselves with our alpha-
bet alone, it wouM assist them much in their etymologies.

OF IONA. 31

Govan.* Columba, who meanwhile had esta-
blished several monasteries and religious houses,
and converted most of the western isles round
about Iona, directed his attention to the Picts.
For some time he took up his residence in the
court of Brudius at Inverness, where he met with
a petty prince of the Orkneys. Here he gained
so much favour that his beloved son in the faith,
Cormac, was offered protection in those regions
of whales, and allowed to preach the doctrine of
the Cross, to the overthrow of blind idolatry.

The establishment of the Culdees was divided
into colleges or monasteries. In each of these
there were twelve brethren, with an abbot, who
had supreme authority over the rest, whilst all
were under the control of the Abbot of Hy, or
Iona. — nay, the whole Scottish nation, as an eccle-
siastical body, even bishops themselves.*)* " The
Abbot and Culdees of 'Hyona' gained so much
on the favour and esteem of the people, that, even
in their cloistered retreats, they were at the head
of all civil, as well as ecclesiastical matters."*j:

The number and distances of the churches,
which were dedicated to Columba, are proofs in
confirmation of Bede, Adamnan, and Innes, of the
extent of the authority and influence of Iona. Let

* Scotichronicon, lib. iii. c. 26.
t Bede, Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. ch. 3.
J Lowe's Hist, of Scotl. p. 320.

32 BIS rORICAL A.CCOUN1

the reader bear with me while I enumerate a few,
viz : Cill-cholum-chille, the oldest burying-ground
in Morren — Cill-cholum-chille, in South Kintyre
— Cill-cholum-chille, in Mull — Cil-cholum-chille,

in islav — Cill-cholum-chille, in North list — Cill-
cholum-chille, in Benbicula — Cill-cholum-chille,
in Skye — Cill-cholum-chille, in Sutherland — Co-

lum-cill, in Lanark — Colum-cille Isle, in Lewis
— Colum-cille Isle, in Loch-colum-cille, whereon
are the remains of a monastery dedicated to ( <>-
lumba — Inch, or rather Innfa-cholum, in the Frith
of Forth, on which a monastery was founded —
Eilean-cholum, a small island in Tongue parish
— St Colum Kirk, in Sanday, in Orkney — St
Columns Isle, in the Minch — Kirk Cholum, in
Wigtonshire.* " Kirk cubrith, in Galloway,"
says Hay, " belonged to the men of the Monastery
of Iona."f Kirk-cubrith is a corrupted term for
Kirk-cuthbert.

Abernethy monastery, about eight miles from
Perth, was long a celebrated seat of the Culdees.
William the Lion, in gifting the half of the tithes
proceeding from this property, to the noble Abbey
of Abcrbrothic, leaves the other moiety, quam
habetunt keledci, in possession of the Culdees.

The monastery of Dunkeld was also a splendid
Culdean seminary. Alexander Myln, a canon of

* Vide Stat. Ace. t S<*

OF IONA. 33

Dunkeld, afterwards Abbot of Cambuskenneth,
wrote an account of the lives of the Bishops of
this see, still extant among the MSS. in the Ad-
vocates' Library. He says, that " Constantine,
King of Picts, from his devotion to St Columba,
at this time patron of the whole kingdom, founded
and endowed an illustrious monastery here. In
this monastery, he placed those religious called
Keldees? These were supplied from Iona by
Doncha, the then abbot.

Kilrimont, or St Andrew's, was founded about
the year 825, "by King Hungus, for the benefit
of the Keldees." * The Ulster Annals, under the
year 872, state the death of Bishop Colman, the
abbot of this monastery. There must have been
also a company of Guldees at Kirk-culdee, called
by our ear- writers Kirkaldy.

When once the fire of grace is kindled in the
soul, the happy subject must speak out, and his
desire to do good to souls knows no limits. Iona
now began to review her more distant neighbours.
She saw the Picts and the Saxons bewildered
in superstition. Stories of dreams, visions, and
miracles, were sedulously propagated by the clergy
and implicitly believed by the laity. A journey
to Rome was thought the direct road to heaven,
— hard watching, and bodily torments, were con

* Jamieson's Hist.

34 BI8TORIC M. \( < 01 N i

sidered necessary to save the soul, — and the most
flagitious sinner no sooner put on the weeds of
Dominic, than the sins of his former life were
believed to be cancelled. Iona saw this,* and
under the protection of King Oswald of Xorthum-
bria, who himself had imbibed the true religion
while in exile in Iona,f sent Aldan, with twelve
disciples. By this eminent teacher, the interests
of virtue and religion were much advanced. The
monks who accompanied him instructed the youth
in all the branches of learning*, and built monas-
teries and churches throughout the country. So
rapid indeed was the progress which Christianity
made here, that Aidan, with King* Oswald inter-
preting his energetic Gaelic, baptized, in seven
days, 15,000 persons! J

Aidan was appointed first bishop of Eileari
naomh, or Holy Island.

The Picts who lived upon the Tweed were next
the object of their high-toned charity. To these
Aidan sent JEata, one of the twelve he took with
him from Iona, and who was instrumental in
bringing them over to the faith of the gospel. It
was Eata, under Aidan, that laid the foundation
of that famous institution, the monastery of Maol-

• Vide Bede.

f Aidan was Bent by Segenius, the fifth abbot horn ( '<
i-miba — Bede t lib. iii. c. 35.
: / ide Bede, lib. iii.

OF IONA. 35

rots, or Melrose.* Of this monastery Eata him-
self was first abbot: he was succeeded by the
pious and learned Boisil, who again was succeeded
by the celebrated St Cuthbert. This Cuthbert,
" The Histories of the Irish " say, Columba took
when a boy, and kept and educated for some time
together with a girl named Bridget, afterwards
St Bride.

The English began by this time to take instruc-
tion from these doves of Iona, and in a few years,
some eminent scholars were produced. Macduff,
a learned Celt, or Scot, instituted the monastery
of Malmesbury. This monastery afterwards be-
came famous under Aldhelm, a pupil of Macduff,
and the first Englishman who wrote Latinf . Se-
genius, second abbot of Iona, founded about the
same time the Church of Rechran, and appointed
a pastor to it.J

Aidan having now gone to receive the well-
done of his master, the College of Iona ordained
and sent Finan to succeed him as Bishop of Lin-
disfern, or Holy Island. He also took twelve
disciples with him, of whom were Cedda, Adda,
Betti, &c. These converted the middle Angles,
Mercians, and East Saxons, whose chief city was
London, and instructed them in the liberal arts.

* Bede, lib. iii. c. 26.

t Cave, Hist. Lit. Secul. 7. A.D. 680.

t Clii Seganii Abbatis Iae filii Tiachra.

36 HISTORIC w. \< < OUNT \

Cedda was Bishop of Winchester, and in the
year 670 of Litchfield.* It was the knowledge
of this, probably, that made Dr Johnson speak so
warmly of Iona, Litchfield being his native place.
Final) was succeeded by Colman and Tudo, who
were both from Iona. 'The famous dispute at
Whitby in Yorkshire.")" about the observance of
Master, took place at that time, between this
Colman and Williired, a papist, from the Vatican.
It will perhaps be a digression desirable, to give
here a glance at the case — A public dispute
being condescended upon, the question was an-
nounced from the chair, viz., " Which is the best
and most ancient form of keeping Easter?" Col-
man pleaded, that the Easter he observed he
received from his Elders at Iona, who had sent
him thither, and who themselves had it from St
John the Evangelist, and all the disciples of the
Lord, &c. His opponent pleaded, that Columba
was not equal to Peter, the prince of the apostles,
unto whom the Lord said, " Thou art Peter : and
upon this rock I will build my Church, and I will
give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven," &c.
Upon this, Oswi, the king, taking hold of the
last words, asked Colman if it was so, that the

* Bede, lib. iv. c. 2

f The nature of the dispute was — Whether the ordinance
of the Supper took place upon the passing of the Son of
God from life to death, or on the day of his crucifixion.

OF IONA. 37

Lord had spoken these words unto Peter ? Colman
answered that he did. And can you show, said
the king, that the like authority was given to
your father Columba? Colman answered in the
negative. Then, said the king, seeing Peter is
the door-keeper of heaven, I will follow his rule ;
lest, when I come to heaven-gate, the door will
be shut against me. This speech of the king was
applauded by the majority of the hearers, and the
victory adjudged to the opponent of Colman.

Colman, unwilling to compromise his princi-
ples, resigned and came home to Iona. Bishop
Leslie says, that afterwards he went to Germany,
Hungary, and Greece, preaching ; and that,
returning by Austria, he was killed by Pagans.
None of the readers of this little book, I trust,
will feel inclined to rest upon Oswi's opinion.
Heaven has literally no keys : the language is
metaphorical. The kingdom of heaven here
means the Jews and believers in Christ, to which
kingdom Peter was to introduce Gentiles.

Observing now the Continent groping her way
by the taper of Aristotelian and Platonic philoso-
phy, and the liberal arts suppressed, even by law,
at Athens, Columbanus, a Scotsman, educated
under Convellanus, Abbot of Iona, was sent
thither, with twelve disciples, as usual. He soon
extirpated the superstition of Gaul, where he
founded the Abbey of Leuxeville, near Basconan,

38 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

where lie himself presided as Abbot for twenty
Years.* A continental writer says, that he
14 filled those regions with monasteries." Among
the twelve who accompanied him from Iona, were
Giles, who became famous in Switzerland, and
Ionas, who became an Abbot, and wrote the life
of Columbanus.

Catahlus, u a native of Hyona," left his paternal
abode about the year 570, on a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem ; whence he went to Italy, and was
ordained Bishop of Tarentum. He succeeded at
length to a Professorship at Geneva.!

Scotland had by this time received from sur-
rounding nations the proud epithet of " Learned
Scotia ;" and graduates from the University of
Iona were much in demand. Spottiswood records,
that " Charles the Great earnestly entreated King*
Achaius, who sent him Joannes Scotus, Claudius
Clemens, Flaccus Albinus, and Rabanus Maurus.
These four he sent with Gulielme his brother,
and by them it was that the University of Parm
was founded !\ Scotus was by the same Charles
employed for founding a University at Pavia,"
in Austrian Italy. To enumerate the monks and
abbots sent from Iona to Ireland would make this

* Yide Lesly de Gest. Scot. p. 144, et Murator Antiq.
torn. iii. p. 826.

f Vide Dempst. Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. p. 163.
X Vide Spottiswood et Jamicson.

OF IONA. 39

chapter too long. Colgan particularizes 56, and
Dr Smith speaks of more. The most famous of
them, I presume, was Gildas Albanus, who suc-
ceeded to the Monastery of Armagh. He trans-
lated the Mulmutine laws, out of the Celtic
language into Latin, which were afterwards
written in the English tongue by King Alfred.

St Giles, who had his education under Abbot
Convellanus, in the beginning of the sixth century,
and who accompanied his countrymen, Colum-
banus, to Gaul, was eminent in those regions.
In Switzerland he converted several thousands to
the Christian religion. The inhabitants of that
quarter were so struck with the simplicity, and
the strictly moral lives of the Culdees, that the
successors of Giles in the monastery were made
princes of the empire.* Several churches were
erecte to the memory of this St Giles, among
which was the Cathedral of Edinburgh.^

Ebba, the daughter of Edelfrid, king of Nor-
thumbria, having been, with her seven brothers,
in exile at Hyona, was baptized to Christ. This
princess founded and endowed the monastery of
Coilledu% now Coldingham. Ebba was here
chosen Abbess of the institution, which was
neither a nunnery nor a monastery. Differing

* Cave, Hist. Liter., author of some epistles on the
choice of a bishop.

f St Jonas, in Vit. St Columbanus.

40 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

from the directress of former establishments of
the kind, the authority of the abbess extended
not only over the nuns, but also over the abbot
and monks.* This office resembles one held by
Maclean the 1st of Du'airl oyer Iona in the year
1390) of which hereafter.

The worship of images became at this time a
matter of controversy with the learned. Albin,
or Albinos, already mentioned, wrote a treatise
upon this subject under the name of Charlemagne,
when he was his domestic servant, against the
proceedings of the Council of Nice.f He taught
a public school for several years at Pavia ; and
became, as formerly mentioned, the founder of
that University. He also published a Confession
of Faith, and wrote the famous Caroline Book's. J

In the disputes which now r agitated the world,
St Clement from Iona, also already mentioned,
held a high rank. When the most of Europe
was debased by superstition, and merging into
barbarism again, he boldly stood forth the cham-
pion of Christianity. In the end of the eighth
century, he wrote a book against image worship. §

Joannes Scotus Erigena, a native of Ayrshire,
was the first philosopher of his day. (Iona, it

• Bede, lib. iv. c. 25.

f Vide Roger Hoveden, Ann. Francof. 1601.
\ Confessio Fidei per Chiffl. edit: 1651.
§ M. du Pin, Nouvtl. Bib. des Aut.

OF IONA.

may be recollected, had lands in Galloway, where
the Gaelic was spoken till the 16th century. —
Buchanan.) Scotus corresponded with Charles
the Bald of France, who intrusted him with the
superintendence of his seminaries. During this
time he wrote several learned books, and became
the father of scholastic divinity.* His translation
of some comments of Maximus upon St Denys,
was much the admiration of the age.f Having
noticed these, it would be unfair to say nothing
of their fellow, Rabanus Maurus, who also was an
eminent scholar. He became Archbishop of
Mentz, and wrote large commentaries upon the
Sacred Scriptures, together with "a Treatise
upon the Vision of God," in MS.f

The love for the monastic life had meanwhile
increased, rather than abated. Loarn, probably
a descendant of that royal house, had retired from
the bustle of the world, and died Abbot of Cluona.
An institution of the same kind had been formed
in Bute, over which Cormac MacAillila was
now Abbot.§ He planted the gospel in Cowal,
and all around him.

As a seat of learning, Iona, even in the seventh-
century, was in advance of any other in Europe ;
and its superiority, in this respect, was acknow-

* Gulielm. Malmesb. de Gest. Reg.
•J Typis impressa Oxon. 1681, fol. \
% Vide Mabillon. § Vide Uls. Annals, 763.

42 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

leged by the monasteries of Ireland, as well as by
those of the Picts, Scots, and Britons.

Lone isle ! though storms have round thy turrets rode —

Though their red shafts have sear'd thy marble brow —

Thou wert the temple of the living God,

And taught earth's millions at his shrine to bow.

Though desolation wraps thy glories now,

Still thou wilt be a marvel through all time

For what thou hast been ; and the dead who rot

Around the fragments of thy towers sublime

Once taught the world, and sway'd the realm of thought,

And ruled the wariors of each northern clime.

Around thee sleeps the blue sky ; and the sun
Laughs — and will laugh for aye on thy decay.
Thour't in the world like some benighted one —
Home of the mighty — that have passed away !
A thousand years upon the world have done
Dreadful destruction ! yet a happier day
Once blcss'd thy sacred mansions — and the ray
Of Christianity blazed forth, and won
The Druid from his darkness ; from thee rau
That fire which lit Creation in her youth,
That turned the wandering savage into Man.
And show'd him the omnipotence of truth.

Hail, sainted isle ! thou art a holy spot,

Engraven on all hearts ; and thou art worth

A pilgrimage, for glories long gone by,

Thou noblest College of the ancient earth.

Virtue and truth, — Religion self shall die,

Ere thou canst perish from the chart of fame,

Or darkness shroud the halo of thy name ! — Moore,

OF IONA. 43

CHAPTER V.

A LIST OF SOME OF THE IMMEDIATE DISCIPLES OF
OOLUMBA A CHRONICLE OF EVENTS CONNECT-
ED WITH IONA, &C.

Lv the preceding chapter, I have submitted a com-
pendius view of the christianizing operations of
Iona. In this I will submit,

1 . A list of some of the most eminent of Columba's

immediate disciples.

2. A chronicle of some events connected with the

Monastry of It, or Iona, from the Annals of
the four Masters, of Ulster, Colgan, <§'<?.

(The twelve who came with Columba at first to Iona
are marked thus.*)

St Aidan, or Aodhan, son of Libher, afterwards

Bishop of Lindisfarne.
St Aidan, son of Rein, Abbot of Couiluisc. (There

are 27 saints of this name.)
St Ailbhe, son of Ronan.
St Aonghas, or Angus of Dermach.
> St Baithan of Doire-chalguich.
St Beathen, son of Brendon, Abbot of Hi.
St Barrind, Abbot of Cill-barrind.

4 I HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

St Becan, son of Ernan, brother of Cumin.

St Bee, or Beg-bhille, bod of Tighearnach.
10 St Berachj a monk of Hi, Abbot of Cluainchorp.

St Berchan, or Barchan* Adam% III. 21.

St Bran, nephew of Columba.
* St Carnaiij son of Branduth.

St Ceata, supposed to be the Bishop ( leadan of Bcde.
15 St Ceallach, Bishop of the Mercians in England. .

St Cobhran, nephew of Columba*

St Cobhtach, son of Brendan, and brother of St
Baithen.

St Colgan of Cill-cholgain, in Connan-ht.
20 St Colgan, son of Aodh, a Culdce of Hi.

St Colgan of Darmagh.

St Colinan, or Columan.

St Colman, Abbot of Hi ; and afterwards of Lin-
disfarne.

St Colman, son of Combgell ; who died 620.
25 St Colman, Abbot of Rechran.

St Colman, son of Euan.

St Colman, son of Tighearnach.

St Colman, son of Ronan.

St Colum Crag, of Erach in Ulster.
30 St Coman, or Comhan, brother to St Cumins.

St Comgan, sister's son of Columba.

St Connall, Abbot of Innes-caoil, Ireland.

St Cona, or Conan, son of Tighearnach.

St Conacht, son of Moaldraighneach.
35 St Conrach M'Kein, of Dermach monastery.

St Constantin, King of Carnubia, or Cornwall,
said by Fordun to have presided over the monastery
of Goran, upon Clyde.

OF IONA. 45

St Cormac, Abbot of Darmagh.

St Corman, the first missionary to the Northum-
brians: Flourished a.d. 630.

St Cuanan, Abbot of Cill-chuanain.
40 St Cuan, or Coan, son of Tighearnach.

St Cuchumin M'Kein, Abbot of Hy.

St Cumin, the Fair, Abbot of Hy? who wrote
Columba's life.

St Dachonna, Abbot of Eas-mac-nearc.
45 St Dermit, of the descendants of K. Leogairee

St Dalian Forguill, formerly a Bard.

St Dima, afterwards Bishop of the Mercians ►

* St Eochadh, or Eochadh Torannan.

St Enna, son of Nuadhan, Abbot of Imleachfoda.

* St Ernan, uncle to Columba,and Abbot of Himbo.
50 St Ernan, Abbot of Drim-tuam in Tir-chonail.

St Ernan, Abbot of Torrachan, of the race of K.

Niall.
St Ernan, of Teach Ernain.
B. Eoghan, or Eoghanan.
St Failbhe, Abbot of Ii.
55 St Farannan, Abbot of all Farannain.
St Fiachna of Achaluing, Ethica.
St Fechro, son of Rodan : Flourished 580.
St Fergna, Abbot of Hy.
60 St Finan, Abbot of Towrd, near Dublin.
St Finan, Abbot of Roth.
St Finan, Abbot of 3fagh-chasgain.
St Finan, an anchorite ; supposed by some to be

the same with the preceding.
St Finan, who succeeded Aidan, as Bishop of Eilean

naomh, or Holy Island.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

65 St Finbarr, Abbot of Drim Cholum, Ireland.
Si Finchan, Abbot of Ard-chaoin.
St Finlugan, a Cuidee of 1 1 \ .

St l'iiitcn. Mm of Aodh, founder of the Monastery
of Caille-Abhind.

B. Gcnere, or Gueren, a Saxon, taught at Ii.
70*St Grellau, son of Redan, &c

St Hilary, brother to St Aidau.

St Lasran, Abbot of Darinagh.

St Lasran, called Gardener.

St Lasran, son of DeagJiilli.
15 St Lasar, son of llonan.

St Libhran, from Connaught.

St Loman, of Loch-uair.

St Luga Ceanaladh, a monk of Hy.
* St Lagaide of Cluanlargh.
80 St Lugaid, Abbot of Cluain finchioll.

St Lugair, Laidir, of Tir-do-chraoibh.

St Lughe M' Cumin, a monk of Hy ; afterwards
Abbot of Eilean Naomh.

St Lughe M'Blai', a monk of Aoi.

St Lughne M' Cumin, brother to St Lughe.
85 St Lughbe M'Blai', brother to Lughe.

St Mernoc, or Manioc, probably founder of Kil-
marnoc Monastery.

St Mini, sister's son of St Cohunba.

St Maolchus, brother to St Marnoc.

St Maoldubh, of Cluin-chonair.
90 St Maoldubh, son of Enan.

St Moab, his brother.

B. Maoleomha, son of Aodli M'Aimirich, rich,
who from a king became a monk.

OF IONA. 47

St Maol-orain, a monk of Aoi.

B. Maolumha, son of Beothan, K. of Ireland, a
monk of Aui.
95 St Mochana, son of Fiachna, K. of Ulster, after-
wards a Pictish bishop.

* St M'Cuthen, said by Usher to have wrote the

Life of St Patrick.
St Moluan, a monk of Aoi.
St Moluc, of the race of Conal Gulban, Bishop of

Lismore ; died 588.
St Mothorian, Abbot of Drimchlaibh.
100 St Munna, Abbot of Teach- Mhunna.
St Pilo, an Anglo-Saxon, taught at Hi.
St Oran, the first of a The order of Columba,"

who was buried at Hi : Reilig Orain is called

after him.
St Ossin, Abbot of Cluan-mhor.

* St Bus, or Russen, " de insulis Pictorum"
105 St Scandal, Abbot of Cillchobhrain.

St Segin, son of Fiachri, Abbot of Hi.
St Segin, son of Ronan, Abbot of Bangor, 664*
St Senach, half-brother of Columba, Abbot.
St Senan, a monk of Darmagh.
110 St Sillean, son of Neman, a monk of Hi.
St Suine, son of Curte, Abbot of Hi.
St Ternoc, of Ari-na-nolt in Ulster.

* St Torannan, afterwards Abbot of Bangor.
St Trenan M'Rintir, Monk of Hi.

115 B. Tulchan, father of St Munna, who followed his
sons to Ii, or Hyona.
Here are 115 of Columba's disciples — his im-
mediate disciples, sainted. To follow them up

H HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

would make a volume of itself. Those who wish
to kn<»w more about them, may consult that rare
book, Triadis Thawnaturgae, fyc, from which I
am just copying a most interesting

Chronicle of some events connected with Ii, or Iona ;
translated from the (tat fie or Erisclic of the four
Masters,* into the Latin of Cohjan, §'c.

\.D.

560. Si Columba arrived in Hi, on Pentecost Eve.

563. St Oran dies, 27th of October.

572. Connal, King of the Scots, who gave Hi to Col-
umba, died.

574. The great Council of Drimceat was held. At this
Court Columba was ambassador from Scot-
land, and was made Primate of all the Irish
Churches. It was at this time he saved the
bards.

583. Brudi, son of Malcaoin, King of the Picts, died.

597. (The West annals say 594 !) St Columba, the
apostle of Albin, died, aetat. 77.

600. St Baithen, son of Brendan, Abbot of Hi, died.

C01. St Lasran, son of Feradach, Abbot of Hi, died.

622. St Eergnu, surnamed the Briton, Abbot of Hi,
died.

635. St Aidan (M' Libber) and others, set out for
England from Iona, at the desire of King ( )--
wald, to convert his people to Christianity.

651. St Segin, son of Fiachra, Abbot of Hi, died.

651. St Aidan, Bishop or Abbot of Lindisferne, in

* Where not otherwise marked, the quotations arc pre-
sumed to be from the Annals of the four Masters.

OF ION A. 49

England, died. (A number of his successors,
as Cellach, Fintan, Colman, &c> were from
Iona.)

654. St Suine, son of Curte, Abbot of Hi, died.

660. St Colman became Abbot of Hi, but soon after
went to be Abbot of Lindisfarne, which he
resigned in 664, and returned to Hi.

668. St Cumin the Fair, Abbot of Hi, the biographer
of Columba, died.

677. St Failbhe, Abbot of Iona, died.

-684. St Adamnan, Abbot of Iona, goes to reclaim
from the Anglo Saxons some captives and
plunder, — was honourably received, and ob-
tained all he wanted.

•<>86. St Adomnan, on a second embassy, got 60 cap-
tives restored from the Saxons to Ireland.

'695. St Adomnan holds a Synod in Ireland ; the acts
of which are called " The Canons of Adom-
nan."
)3. St Adoman, or Adamnan, Abbot of Iona, and
biographer of Columba, died aetat. 78.
"708. St Conail, son of Failbhe, Abbot of Iona, died.

710. St Caide, or Caidan, Abbot of Iona, died.

713. St Dorbhen Fada, Abbot of Iona, died.

714. St Faolchuo, son of Dorbhen M'Teine, made
Abbot of Iona, aetat. 14,.

'714. The family of Iona expelled beyond Drim-Albhh

by Nectan, King of the Picts.
716. St Duncha, son of Ceannfaolai, Abbot of Iona,

died ; and Faolchuo, who had resigned his

office to him, again resumes it.
720. St Faolchuo, son of Dorben, Abbot of Iona, died*

F

50 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

725. St Killean, or perhaps Gillean, surnamcd Facta*

Abbot of Iomt, died.
729. St Egbert or Egberht, who had remained 13

years in Iona, died.
744. Many of the people of Iona perilled in a great

storm.
747. St Killean, or Gillean, Abbot of Iona, died.
754. St Failhhe II., Abbot of Iona, died, actat. 87.
702. St Slebhen, son of Cong-hall, Abbot of Iona, died.
765. Beatus Nial, surnamed Frasach, King of Ireland,

who had abdicated his kingdom, and had been

for eight years in Iona, died.
767. St Suine II., Abbot of Iona, died; Ulster An-

nals say 771.
777. St Murcha, or Murdoch, son of Huagal, Prior

of Iona, died.
786. B. Artgal M'Catheld, King of Connaught, who

had abdicated, died in pilgrimage in Iona, in

the eighth year of his pilgrimage.
793. Devastation of all the isles by foreigners.
797. St Bresal, son of Seigen, for 30 years Abbot of

Iona, died.
— — St Conmhall, Abbot of Iona (Scriba Selectissi-

mus,) died.
797. Iona burnt by foreign pirates.
801. Iona again burnt by pirates, and many of the

family destroyed in flames.
805. Of the family of Iona, 68 killed by foreigners.
810. St Ceallach, son of Conghall, Abbot of Iona,

died.
815. St Constantin, King of the Picts, builds the

church of Dunkeld.

OF IONA. 51

816. St Dermit, Abbot of Iona, goes to Albin with
Columba's coffer or box.

823. St Blamhac, son of Flanni, Abbot of Iona, slain.

827. Ungust II., or Hungus, King of the Picts, found-
ed Kilrimont. (St Andrews.)

843. Kenneth M' Alpin, after his conquest of the Picts,
removes from the West to the East coast.

848. Iurastach, Abbot of Iona, goes to Ireland with

Calumkille's sacred things.

849. Kenneth the III., transported the relics of

Columba to his new church, (probably Aber-
nethy.)

852. Amhlaibh, or Aulay, King of Lochlin, came to

Ireland, and laid it under tribute.

853. The Coarb of Colum-cille, a wise and excellent

man, martyred among the Saxons.

863. St Cellach, son of Ailild, Abbot of Iona, died

in the land of the Cruthens.

864. Tuathal M' Artgusa, Archbishop of Fortren, and

Abbot of Dancaillein, (Dunkeld) died.
875. St Columba's box is carried to Ireland, lest it

should fall into the hands of the Danes.
877. B. Ferrach M'Corrnaic, Abbot of Iona, died. —

Ulster Annals say 879.
890. St Andrews about this time made independent on

Iona, by King Grig. — Reg. S. And.
890. St Flan, or Flanna, son of Maolduine, Abbot of

Iona, died : in pace dormivit.
925. St Maolbride, son of Dornan, Co'arb of SS. Pat.

Col. & Adomnan, died.
935. St Aonghas, or Angus, coadjutor of the Abbot

of Iona, died.

C)2 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

937. Dubharbj CVarb of Colum-cille, and Adomnan,

rested in peace.
945. St Caoinchomrach, Abbot of lona, died.
958. Diibli-dhuii), Co'arb of Colum-cille, died.
964. St Fingin, Bishop of lona, died.
978. St Mugron, a bishop, scribes and notable teacher,

Burnamed Nantri-rann, Co'arbof Colum-cille

in Ireland and Scotland, died.

980. Amhluabh, Aulaf, or Aulay,sonofSitrie, Prince
of the Normans of Dublin, after his defeat in
the battle of Temtarahoraj took refuge in
lona, where he died. — Ulster Annals.

985. The island of lona pillaged on Christmas Eve
by the Normans, who killed the Abbot and
15 of the learned of the Church.

997. Patrick, GVarb of Ceelum-cille, died, actat. 83.

988. Duncha, or Duncan, Co'arb of CVlum-cille, died^
1004. B. Maolbride, Hua Rimed, Abbot of lona, died.

1009. Martin M'Cineadh, GVarb of Ccelum-cille, died.

1010. Murdoch, Co'arb of SS. Columba and Adam-

nan, an eminent Professor of Theology, died.
1015. B. Flani Abhra, Abbot of lona, died.
1034. O'Huchton, drowned coining from Scotland

with Coliver Colum-cille's book, and three

MSS. — Ulster Annals.
1057. llobertach M'Donell, Co'arb of Columba, died.
1070. B. M'Baithen, Abbot of lona, died.
1093. Magnus, King of Norway, subjugates the West

Isles.
1099. B. Duncha, son of Moenach, Abbot of lona,

died.
1126. The first Legate (John of Crema) comes to

OF IONA. 53

Scotland. (This is the first trace of Papal

power here.)
1 152. Cardinal Jo. Papira arrives in Ireland, with four

stoles or ropes, sent by the Pope to four

Archbishops of Ireland.
1178. St Patrician Huabranian, a venerable and holy

Bishop, died at Iona.
1188. B. Amhluabh Hua Loighre, a pilgrim in Iona,

died in a venerable old age.
1199. St Muireach Hua Baodin, died in Iona.*

* After labouring at this " Chronicle of Events" for a
whole night, I found the whole translated to my hand by
Dr Smith,

HISTORICAL AC<

CHAPTER VI.

TIIT. STATE OF THINGS AT ION A BBGIN8 TO
DECLIKE ION A BURNT BY THE DANES RE-
FORMATION! DEVASTATION HORROR MUR-
DER, &C.

" No more of talk, where God or angel gueat
With man, as with his friend familiar, used
To sit indulgent, and with him partake
Rural repast, permitting him the while
Venial discourse unhlamed : I now must change
These notes to tragic." —

So sang sweet Milton, now about to introduce —
"foul distrust and breach disloyal, on the part of
3/i an."'

Coeumba commenced his glorious career in
[ona about the year 563, and was called to receive
the " well done" of his God on the oth of June
597. The change he was the means of effecting
in the moral condition of Europe during these 34
years, is one of the most astonishing events con-
nected with Scottish history. " He was all this
while in his monastery of Hy, the mother and
superior of no less than 100 more, which he him-

OF ION A. 55

self had procured to be built, and given rules and
pastors to." — Spottiswood, lib. i. p. 10.

His successors, of whom I have in the preced-
ing chapter submitted an epitome list, followed
in his steps with the same devoted zeal for near-
ly 600 years. But churches, like governments,
are subject to degeneration, and when a church
or an individual grows lukewarm, the state of
things becomes unpalatable and unsavoury to
God.

The first thing that shook the stability of Iona
college was her own venerable son Adamnan's
defection. This abbot being sent as ambassador
to King Alfred of Northumbria, he became a con-
vert to the Romish rites, which, on his return to
Iona, he attempted to introduce there, but with-
out any visible effect. A. D. 7 16, that is, about
13 years after the death of Adomnan, King Nee-
tan the III. in league with Ceolfrid, banished
those who were refractory of the monks of Iona
" beyond Drim Albin" and in the same year Ecg-
berht the priest Avent from Northumbria to Iona
with a view to introduce the new Eucharist and
Tonsure. This it took him 13 years to accom-
plish; but still a man's most dangerous foes are
those of his own household, and on the 23d day
of April 729? Abbot Duncan and the brethren for
the first time joined Ecgberht!

The Romish monks had by this time gained

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

great ground both in Scotland and England.
With their celibacy, and seeming sanctity, they
had duped the populace t<> die detriment of the
honest Culdees, who held, as every man ought,

celibacy in dishonour.

" Sin-bred ! how have ye troubled mankind
Witb shows instead ; mere shows of$eeminp pure,
And banished from man's life his happiest life —
Simplicity and spotless innocence."

Ecgberht died this same year, and Iona seems
to have enjoyed peace for 60 years. In !{)3, the
Scandinavian spoilers, who from year to year had
infested the maritime coasts of Scotland, laid
waste most of the islands of Britain. In 796,
they carried their piratical incursions to the coast
of Ireland and Scotland, and continuing their
ruthless course round the western coast, " burnt
the famous monastery of Hyona, the only sanc-
tuary of real learning which Europe even at that
time possessed."

M Now watch-fires burst from across the maiu,

From Rona and Uist and Skye,
To tell that the ships of the Dane

And the red-hair'd spoilers were nigh."*

They burnt it a second time, together with the
city of Colum-cille, in 801 ; and, destitute alike
of humanity and Christianity they, some years

• Campbell.

OF ION A. 57

afterwards, put to the sword sixty-eight monks of
Hyona.*

" They have lighted the island with ruin's torch :
And the holy men of Iona's church,
In the temple of God lay slain."

In 806, the first year of the reign of King An-
gus, the inhabitants of Iona began to repair the
breaches made by the " Gentiles." Angus was
slain after a reign of nine years, and was succeeded
by Acdh II. This king seems not to have been
in the graces of the Culdees, for it is said, " The
men of Colum-cille went in a body to curse him."

In 818, the cruelty and rapine of the " Gentiles"
was again renewed against the Isles, and, permitted
by God to scourge the apostacy of man, they
directed their fury upon Iona. Here they sacri-
ficed, as a victim to their pagan idolatry, Blaihmac
MacFlain the Abbot, and 15 of his associates.*)*
The persecuted university of Iona now began to
be alarmed at the progress of barbarians, and,
therefore, began to transport themselves and
their relics. We read that Diarmid, one of the
Abbots, set off with some relics, and for fear of
the pirates, took so circuitous a route that it was
two years before he made out Ireland. " O*
Huchton was drowned coming from Scotland
with Calibher,""j: or the Book of Battles, " Colum-

* Ulster Annals. f Ulster Annals.

% Cath, battle ; and leabhar, a book.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

ci lie's Book, and three MSS." From these and
several other instances which might be adduced,

much may be conjectured.

Notwithstanding the great decline of power,
however, there continued still to be monks and

abbots at lona. — For

1489) April. A letter passed under the privy
seal of James IV u to the Pape, and ane to the
Vice-Chancellor, for the erection of the Abbacy
of Calum Cille in the Bishopis sete of the His,
quhill his principal kirk in the Isle of Man be
retenit fra Englishemen — solicitat per contitetA
de Ergile."—Regist Sec Sig. Vol.i. fob 81.

1 1 92, August 1 . From a very interesting char-
ter of this date, preserved in the charter-chest
of Lochbuy, we find that John, Abbot of Y, as
one of the council of the Lord of the Isles, affix-
ed his seal to a charter by John Lord of the Isles,
and Alex r de Insulis, Lord of Lochalsh, (John's
nephew), in favour of John M'Gilleon, Lord of
Lochbuy, dated at Oransav. The seal of Abbot
John is now so much obliterated, that the device
cannot be ascertained.

" 1508-9, January. Protect io regis facta re-
ligiosis mulieribus suisque oratricibus Dominae
Agnetae filial Donaldi M'Gillane Priorissae Mon-
asterii Monialium beatissimse Virginis Mariae in
insula sancti Columbae infra Dominium Insularum
et conventui cjusdem/'&c. Ibid. iii. fol. 209; —

OF IONA. 59

j. e. the king's protection was granted to the Nuns
of Lady Agnes, daughter of Donald M'Laine,.
Prioress of the monastery and convent of the
most blessed Virgin, in the Island of St. Columba,
within the Lordship of the Isles.

1548, July 15. " Admission of Mary, daughter
of Ferquhar, alias MacGilleon, to be Prioress of
Icolmkill." Ibid. xxii. fol. 37.

" 1566-7, February 15. Gift to Marion Mac-
lane of the Prioressie and Nunnerie of the Abbey
of Ycolmldll — vacant through decease of umq le .
Agnes M'Clane, last prioress thereof." Ibid*
xxxvi. fol. 22.

The Duart Macleans, of whom Coll is the lineal
representative, seem to have had a close connec-
tion with Ii a century before this period, for
Lachlan Maclean, the 1st of Duart, had, 12th
July, 1390, a charter from Donald Lord of the
Isles, comprehending, inter alia, " Officium Fra-
gramanache et Armanache in insula de Hy."
Registram Magni Sigilli, Vol. xiii. No. 300.
What this office was it puzzles me to ascertain.
Frag is an obsolete Gaelic term for a woman,
and manache is still the term for a monk. It
must have been, therefore, some office over both
the nunnery and monastery. I find in Douglas*
Baronage, under the same date, two or three
charters more given him; such as, " Custodia
castrorum de Kernaburg, et Isleburg, cum officio

60 historic w. A.CCOI NT

]>ali rains totarum t ma nun <l: Tyrai/ 9 (Tyree),

ftc.

Iona. however, was destined soon to be Abbot-

A.D. 1561. The Act of the Convention of Es-
tates was passed at desire of the church, •• Fob
demolishing all the abbeys of monks and B
and for suppressing whatsomever monuments of
idolatrie were remaining in the realm." In con-
sequence of tliis edict, ensued, as we may easily
conceive, a pitiful devastation of churches and
monasteries. It was at this time the mobility de*
stroyed and carried away so many of the crosses
which adorned Iona! The very sepulchr
the dead were rifled and ript up — Bibliothecs,
and other volumes of the fathers, together with
the registers of the church, were cast into the
streets, and afterwards gathered in heaps and
burnt.* The monks made their escape tie
way they could, carrying with them to the Vatican
and other places the most precious and portable
relics. The principal lands belonging to the
Monastery fell into the hands of Mac Lean of
Duart, the most powerful of the chiefs in the
neighbourhood.

A.D. 1609. The next striking event in the
history of the now desolate Iona, was a great

• Keith Hist. p. 503.

OF IONA. 61

assembly of all tlie chiefs in the Isles, to meet on
this holy spot their worthy bishop Andrew Knox
(of the family of Ranfurly). This benevolent
prelate, whose best eulogium is, that his labours
in his diocese were of the same description with
those which we have seen in our own times
undertaken, and so successfully prosecuted, by
the venerable Principal Baird — this prelate, I
say, found the people over whom he was set,
reduced to a state of deplorable ignorance, and
almost barbarism, owing to the Reformation. —
Start not, reader, at this assertion, however bold
it may appear, for nothing is more certain : and
thus we prove it. Before the Reformation, the
clergy in the Highlands and Islands were not
only numerous, but well provided for by the piety
of the natives ; and whatever may have been the
abuses of the Church of Rome in regard to dis-
pensations, indulgences, &c. (the immediate cause
of Luther's zeal), it cannot be denied that the
ministers of religion in the Highlands were re-
spected by, and as a matter of course were useful
to, the people among whom their lot was cast.
The Reformation, however eagerly embraced, for
private reasons, by the nobility and great chiefs,
came suddenly upon the mass of the Highlanders,
who were not prepared for it. Nor did those
who at this time without scruple seized the
greater part of the church lands and revenues,

G

HISTORICAL A<

and expelled the Romish clergy, trouble them
i about supplying the mem rf religious
action to the people, to the

under the old n j/imn Wh

qaence ? Athr the Refoi be clergy

became comparatively few in nsmbei

of the proper mean- of lupport — many parishes
and charges heeame vaeant, and remained so for
a length of time — the churches and chapels be-
came ruinous — and the people began to fall into
a state of barbarism that would have disgraced
the dark ages.

We all know the difficulty with which, in the
rich and fertile Lowlands, the establishment of
the Kirk, on its present moderate footing in re-
gard to the payment of its clergy, was carried
into effect. But difficult as this was in the vicinity
of the Court, the Parliament, and the General
Assembly, what must have been the obstacles to
such an arrangement in the remote and almost
inaccessible Highlands and Isles!

Bishop Knox found his diocese in the lament-
able state which we have attempted to describe.
He failed not to bring the subject fully under the
notice of King James, who had then recently as*

d the throne of England; and he I
relaxed his efforts till all the chiefs of the
were compelled to meet him at IoWA, there to
agree upon certain important measures for the

OF IONA. 63

improvement and civilization of the Isles. This
Court, as it was called, of the Bishop of the Isles,
vras held at Iona in the summer of 1609. The
statutes there agreed upon, and sanctioned by the
oaths of the chiefs, are abundantly interesting,
and appear to have been drawn up with consum-
mate ability.

This is perhaps the proper place to introduce a
few interesting original documents relative to
Iona. I am enabled to give them in this Edition
only through the kindness of the " Iona Club."
I have cancelled what I deemed extraneous matter
to make room for them.

ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS,

ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE HISTORY OF ICOLMKILL AND THE
BISHOPRICK OF THE ISLES.

NO. I. — RENTALE OF THE BISHOPRICK OF THE ILIS AND
ABBACIE OF ECOLMKILL.*

Imprimis, the twentie pund landis of Ecolmkill, 20 lib.

Item, of Rosse, 20 lib.

Item, in Brolos ane pennie land, callit Tor-

riniehtrache, . « . . . Id.

* This rental has been hitherto a desideratum among the
ecclesiastical antiquaries of Scotland, neither it nor that
of the Bishoprick of Argyle being contained in the Register
of Assumption of the thirds of Benefices, made in conse-

G4 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

Item* the penme land of Cairsagej . . Id.

Item, the pennie land of Carvalire, . . Id.

Item, the half-pennie land of Glagveildirie* Jd.

Item, ane pennie land of Kilphubbillj . Id.
Item, the perinie land of the Keallinne, . Id.

Item, the pennie land of kilbrandane, . Id.

I it mi, the pennie land of Kilneoning, . Id.

Item, the half-pennie land of Cengarwgerriej id.

Item, the pennie land of Kilmorie, . . Id.

Tin' foirsaid nyne pennie land, all lyand within

the Isle of Mullc.

The Abbatis landis within the Isle of Teirie.

Item, Baillephuille, 4 lib.

Item, the Wvle, 13s. 4d.

The Abbatis landis within the Clanrannaldis boundis.

Item, the He of Cannay, 20 lib.

Item, Ballenamanniehe, lyand within the He of Weist.

The Abbatis landis within Donald Gormis boundis.

Item, [in] the He of Weist the tuentie-four pennie

land, callit Ung-anab, 24d.

quence of the act of Parliament, 1561. This interesting
document was discovered in the charter chest of Sir John
Campbell of Airds and Ardnamurchan, Baronet, in Feb-
ruary, 1834. Although there is no marking to that eiVect,
it appears to have been a copy made in the reign of James
VI. from the certified rental drawn up in 1661, which by
some omission was never registered. The document is in
perfect preservation, and its general accuracy is unques-
tionable. It is to be hoped that the late discovery of this
rental will encourage the search for that of Argyle, which
is still wantinsr.

OE IONA. GS

Item, Baillenakill in Eillera.

Item, Kirkapost in Eillera.

Item, Cairenische thair.

Item, in Trouterneiss ane half teirunge,* callit Kcil-

bakstar.
Item, in Sleatt the tua Airmadillis.

The landls tliat M'Aenf lies of the Abbatis.
Item, Geirgadeill in Ardnamurchan.

The Abbatis landis possest be 31'Cloid of Heries.
Item, the Ards of Glenelge.

The landis quhilk the Clandonald of the West% Illis.
haldis of the Abbott.

Item, the tuentie pundis of Laintymanniche and
Mwicheleische in Ilia, . * ... 20 lib.

Item, Ardneiv in Ilia, .... 8 lib. 13s 4d

Item, the fourtie merk landis of Skeirkenzie in Kin-
tyre, " 26 lib. 13s. 4d.

Item, the sax merkis landis of Camasnanesserin in
Melphort, 4? lib.

Item, the l c pennie land of Muckarn. §

* A teirunge or terunga of land was equivalent to four
merk lands of old extent.

f Mac Ian of Ardnamurchan.

\ This seems to be an error for south west.

§ The six merk lands of Camusnanesrin and the lands of
Muckarn seem to be here erroneously included under the
lands held of the Abbot by the Clandonald. They perhaps
formed part of the Priory lands of Ardchattan, held at the
Reformation along with the Abbacy of Icolmkill in com-
mendam, by the Bishop of the Isles ; and at all events, were
never held by the Clandonald, either under the Abbot or
any other superior.

G6 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

The Kirkis and Pcrsonagis perteining the Abbatt of
Ecolmhill.
Item, the teindis of Ecolmkill, cailit the personaige

of Tempill-Ronaige/
Item, the personag of Kilviceowinn in Rosse.
[tern* the persona^ of Keilfeinchen in Mulle.
Item, the personag of Keilnoening in Mulle.
Item, the personag of Keilchallumkill in Quyneise

in Mulle,

Item, the personag of Keillean in Toirrasain Mulle.

Item, the personag of Soiribie in Teirie.

Item, the personage of Keilpedder in Veist.

Item, the personage of Howmoir thair.

I win, the personage of Sand thair.

Item, the personage of Can nay.

Item, the personage of Sleatt.

Item, the personage of Mwidort.

Item, the personage of Skeirkenze in Kin tyre.

Item, the personage of Keilcheirran thair.

Item, the personage of Keilehrist inStrathawradall.*

Rentaie of Bischopis landis within the litis.
Imprimis, Keilvennie in Ilia.
Item, the Ille cailit Ellanamwk, possest be M'Aen

of Ardnamurchane.
Item, the He of Rasay.f

* In the Isle of Sky. Kilchrist is now the parish church
of Strath.

f M The He of Raarsay is excellent for fishing, pertein-
ing to M'Gyllychallum of Raarsay be the suord, and to
the Bischop of the lies be heritage : This same M'Gylly-
challum should bey M'Cloyd of the Lewis." — Dean Munro.

OF ION A. 67

Item, the fyve Illis of Barray.*

Item, Skeirachnaheie in Loise.f

Item Rona na nav.

Item, in Orknay.

Item, Snisport in Troutirneise,

Item, Kirkapost in Teirie.

The Teindis and personagis perteining the Bischop<>
Item, the Teindis of Buitt.
Item, the Teindis of Arran.
Item, the personage of Kirkapost in Teirie*
Item, the personage of Eie in Loise.J

* Dean Munro enumerates nine Isles in the vicinity of
Barra as pertaining to the Bishop, viz. Lingay, Giganin,
Berneray, Megaly, Pahay, Fladay, Scarpnamutt, Sanderay,
and Watersay. From the following notice it would appear
that these Isles, as well as Rasay, were held hy a layman
by the sword, to the damage of the Bishoprick ". —

° Compeirit ane Reuerend fader in God, Ferquhar, Bis-
chop of the His and Commendatour of Colmekyll, and
constitut Procuratour Maister Jhone Lethame, cum totis
Frocvratoribus curie, in the actioun movit be him aganis
M'Neile the Lard of Barray, MacGillechallum callit of

Rasay, and in all uther actionis," &c Acta Dominorum

Concilii et Sessionis ; 14th March, 1532-3.

f The Isle of Lewis.

% The old church of Eie now in ruins, is in the immediate
vicinity of Stornoway. Here many of the chiefs of the
Siol Torcuil, or Macleods of Lewis, are interred ; and par-
ticularly Malcolm, son of Roderick Macleod, Lord of Lewis.,
who died in the reign of James V. His tomb is still vi-
sible, and the inscription is entire, with the exception of
the date.

68 HISTOBB iJL \< < I

Item, the personage of Etoidillia Herds.*
Item, the personage ofSnuport in Troutirnr.-
Item, the third pairt of all personagifl porteui
the Abbatfc, the personag of Ecolmkill and
Etosse onlie exoepAtt

No. 11. — RENTAL OF THE LAND, IN A " PRECEPT, UNDER

NLOT NBA! 01 .iami> vi., or a royal charter

OF NOVODAMUS, WITH AUGMENTATION OF THE RENTAL,
TO HECTOR MACLEAN, SON AND APPARENT HEIR Ol
LAUCHLAN MACLEAN OF DOW ART, OF THE ISLAND OF
IONA, AND MANY OTHER LAND>, FORMERLY BELONGING
TO THE ABBOT OF IONA, 1587 — 8."

I. — Lands llossy, or in Ross of MalL
1. Schabbay — four penny lands. [Shiaba.] Scots money.
24 stones of oat meal, at 8d.
24 stones of cheese, at Is.
4 calved cows, at 10s.
Eik in money
Quowart, 3 stones meal .
3 stones cheese .
4 bolls coal, at 8J.
4 bolls lime, at Is. . 4

Total Schabbaij L.o 10

* There was at Rowdill a religious house, iouuded by
Macleod of Harris, and dedicated to St Clement. It has
long been the burial-place of the chiefs of this family : and
the monument of Alexander Macleod of Harris and Dun-
vegan (commonly called Alister Crottach or Hump-back-
ed), who died in the reign of Queen Mary, is still in good
preservation, and is perhaps the most beautiful specimen
of sculpture in all the Western Isles.

L.O

tfi

1

4

2

1

%

3

|

8

4

OF IONA.

2. Skur — one and a half penny lands. ' Scots money.

9 stones meal « - L.O 6

9 stones cheese « •• 9

1 mart and half a mart, at 10s. 15

Eik in money . . 13

Quo wart 1£ stone meal • 10

,\\\ stone cheese • 16

1A bolls coal . . 10

H bolls lime P , 16

3.

Total Skur

Kihnakewin — four penny lands.

[Kilvicewin,']

24 stones meal

: L.O 16

24 stones cheese

14

4 marts .

2

Eik in money .

6 10

Quowart, 3A stones meal

2 4

3| stones cheese

3 6

4 bolls coal

2 8

4 bolls lime t .

4

Total Kilmakewin

Seirpene — two penny lands.

[Seirphein."]

12 stones meal

. L.O 8

12 stones cheese

12

Eik in money

1 8

Quowart, 2 stones meal .

1 4

2 stones cheese .

2

2 bolls coal

1 4

2 bolls lime

2

4 19 4

Total Seirpene 18 4

70

Hl-ToIUCAL ACCOUNT

lUhhraloch — a halfpenny land. Soots m one

;) stonei meal • • L.O 2

3 stones cheese . . 3

No eik or other burd.

a

I'skanc — a penny land.

G stones meal . .

L.O 4

6 stones cheese . ■.

6

1 mart ....

10

Eik in money

10

Quo wart, 1 stone meal j

8

1 stone cheese .

1 (J

1 boll coal

8

1 boll lime . t

1

Total Ushane 1 4 2

7. Ardhavaig — a penny land. ^Irdchiaveg.']

The same as Uskane.

Total Ardhavaig

8. Larakhin — a penny land.

The same as the two preceding*, without
quo wart, amounting- to Is. 8d.

Total Larakhin

9. Ardachig — a penny land. [Ardacha.]

The same as Ushane*

Total Ard

10. Lewojie — a half penny land.

The same as Edderaloch, No. 5.

Total Lewonc

11. Knohnafineg — a penny land. \_K7iochnafenag,~\

The same as No. 8.

Total Knohnafineg 1

1 4 2

1 4

OF IONA.

71

12. KnoMaytarlach — a penny land.
The same as Nos. 8 and 11.

Total KnoMaytarlach

13. Traysane — two penny lands. [Traysana.~\
The same as Seirpene, No. 4, with the

addition of 2 marts at 10s.

Total Traysane

14. Ardwalleneis — two penny lands. \Arde-

lanish.~\
The same as No. 13.

Total Ardwalleneis

15. Bernis — a penny land.
The same as No. 6.

16.

17.

18.

Total Bernis

Teirgargane — two penny lands. \_Tirer-

gane.~\

The same as No. 14.

Total Teirgargane

Teirkill — a penny land.

[Tirgile.~\

The same as No. 6.

Total Teirkill

Kilmorie, — Three farthing lands.

4J- stones meal ,

. . L.O 3

4-J stones cheese •

4 6

^ of a mart, at 10s.

3 4

Eik in money . «

7^

1 boll coal . ,

8

1 boll lime • •

1

Scots money.

1 2

2 8 4

2 8 4

1 4 2

14 2

Total Kilmorie 13 li
19. Ellanecalmene — a halfpenny land.
The same as No. 5.

Total Ellanecalmene 5

72 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

20. Stokadcll— two penny kadi. Scots money

The same as Nos. 4 and 13.

Total Stokadcll 9

21. Tiullimoir — four penny lands.

04 stones white meal, at 8d. L.2 2 vS
4 calved cows, at 10*. . 2
Eik in money • • 3 4

Total BaUimoir 4 6

llquhur — a penny land. [SStrifcAvrra.]
The same as No. 8.

Total Sailqnhw 1 2

23. Totty — one and a halfpenny lands.

28 stones white meal . L.O 18 8

1 mart and £• a mart, at 10s. 15
Eik in money . . 13

Total Potty 1

24. Tcrchladar<e—n penny land.
The same as No. 8.

Total Terchladanc I -

25. Creweych, lower — a half peimy land.

[CmcA.]
The same as No. 5.

Total Creweych, lower 5

20. Creweych, upper — a half penny land.
The same as No. 5.

Total Creweych, vpper 5

27. Ardchenaiy — two penny lands. [ArJfinaig.]
The same as No. 13.

Total Ardchenaiy 2 8 4

OF ION A.

73

28. Part of Teirgeyll, called Callegownan — two

and a half penny lands. Scots money.

15 stones meal . . L.O 10

15 stones cheese . , 15

3 marts, at 10s. . * 1 10

Eik in money . . 2 6

Quowart, 2 stones meal . 14

2 stones cheese . 2

3 bolls coal . . , 2

3 bolls lime . . . 3

5 10

80.

01.

Total Callegownan

Bonessane — three and a half penny lands.

21 stones meal

L.O 14

21 stones cheese

1 1

4 marts

2

Eik in money .

3 4

Quowart, 2 stones meal .

1 4

2 stones cheese .

2

4 bolls coal

2 8

4 bolls lime

4

Total Bonessane

Crongerd — two penny lands

. [Cronagart.1

12 stones meal

L.O 8

12 stones cheese

12

2 marts ....

1

Eik in money .

4 2

Quowart, 1 stone meal

8

1 stone cheese

1

Total Crongerd

Ley — two penny lands.

The same as No. 30, with the addition of

1 stone of meal and 1 stone of cheese

to the quowart. Total Leg

H

4 8 4

10

7 a

74

HISTORICAL ACCOl M'

32,

Assabol — a penny land.

Scots

money.

The same as No. 8.

Total Assabol

1

2 6

53.

Ardticn — five penny lands.

30 stones meal

. L.l

30 stones cheese

1 10

8

4 marts .

%

Quowart, 4 stones meal

2

8

4 stones cheese

4

4 bolls coal

2

8

4 bolls lime

4

5

Total Ardtwn

3 4

Total money rent and rent in kind con-
verted into money, payable to the
crown for the above lands in Ross of
Mull L.G3

8 7*

II. — Lands in other parts of MulU
34. Kilphobull — a penny land. [Kilphubill,
now called KilUchronan.']

12 stones meal
12 stones cheese
I mart .
Eik in money .

3j. Killin — a penny land.
The same as No. 34.

L.O 8

12

10

6

Total Kilphobidi
[Kellan.~\

1 1G 8

Total Killin. 1 16 8

30. Calyemoir — a penny land.
The same as No. 34.

Total Calyemoir 1 16 8

37. Kilvranyn — a penny land. [Kilvrcnan.] 1 1G 8

OF ION A. 75

Scots money.

38. Kilnyne — a penny land. [Kilninian.~] 116 8

39. Kingargera — a penny land. \KengararJ\ 1 16 8

40. Kilmorie — three farthing lands.

9 stones meal . . . L.O 6

9 stones cheese . , 9

f of a mart, at 10s. f . 2 6

Eik in money # . .0 5„*

total Kilmorie 12 6

41. Beith — two penny lands — seems an error

for one penny land.
Rent the same as 34. Total Beith I 16 6

42. Thorin — apennyland. [Torran.] 1 16 8

43. Carsaig — a penny land \ 1 16 8

44. Skrydane & Ard — a penny land 116 8

45. Gleswilder & Lyald — a penny land 1 16 8

Total money rent and rent in kind, pay-
able to the crown for the above lands
in other parts of Mull . . L,21 5 10
III. — Island of Iona.
46. Iona, old rent— 30 marks L.20
General Augmentation of
rental on Iona and all the
preceding lands, 4 marks 2 13 4

22 13 4

Total rent payable

to the crown for Iona

IV.-

-Lands in

Isla»

Skarrals — a quarter land.

30 stones meal

,

L.l

30 stones cheese

t r

1 10

4 marts .

.

2

Eik in money .

•

10

Total ShanaU 5

76 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

Scots Money.
4^. Kihnabohs — a quarter land, same as No. 47 5

49. Allabohs — an eighth or half quarter hind 2 10

50. Kekill — an eighth or hall* quarter land 2 10

51. Some — seven and a half cow-lands.

22 stones meal . . L.O 14 8

22 stones cheese . . 12

1 mart . . . . 10

Eik in money . • . 7

Total Some 2 13 8

52. Skeag and Lewres — two and a half cow-

lands.
7? stones meal • . L.O 5

7i stones cheese • • 7

Total Skeag and Lewres 12

53. Mec, Ballevannich, and the Isle of Ardnew

— heing two quarters of the lands of

Ardnew [Ardnave'j, aud equivalent to

five merit lands.
24 holls of oatmeal, of the

large measure, at 6s. 8d.

aboil .... L.7 16 8
Money . . . . 13 4

Total Mee y Battevannich, & hie of Ardnew 8 10

Total money rent and rent in kind, pay-
able to the crown for the above lands
in isla L.26 15 8

V. — Lands in Tiree.
54. Balltfulye — six mark lands.

48 males of oatmeal, at 3s. 4d. a male L.8

OF IONA. 77

55. Kirkebald — six mark lands. Scots moner.
The same as No. 54 . . . 8

56. Woyll — one mark land.

14 males of meal, at 3s. 4d. L.2 6 8
1 mart • . • . 10

Total Woyll 2 IG 8

57. Keillis — six mark lands.

The same as No. 55 . % . 8

Augmentation on Lands in Tiree, 2 marks 16 8

Total money rent and rent in kind, pay-
able to the crown for the above lands
in Tiree L.28 3 4

GENERAL ABSTRACT.

I. Rental of lands in Ross of Mull, payable

to the crown by this charter . L.63 8 7j

II. Rental of other lands in Mull, payable to

the crown by this charter . . 21 5 10

III. Rental of the Island of Iona, payable to

the crown by this charter . . 22 13 4

IV. Rental of lands in Isla, payable to the

crown by this charter . . . 26 15 $
V. Rental of lands in Tiree, payable to the

crown by this charter . . • 28 3 4

Total yearly rent, payable to the crown,
for all the lands contained in this char-
ter w r hich formerly held of the Abbot
of Iona* L.162 6 9|.

* This table of the different reddendo, of the portion of
the Abbey lands included in the charter, the title of which
is given above, with their respective values in money t will
give some idea of the wealth of the Abbacy of Iona*

78 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

NO. HI OBLIGATION, RODERICK MACLEOD OF THE LEWIS

TO JOHN CAMPBELL, BISHOP OF THE ISLE?,* 1573.

Be it ken I) till all men be thir presentis, me,
IIorie M'Gloid of the lewis, for the kyndnes,

fauour, and gentres sehewin to ws be ane reuer-
end fader in God, JoHNE BI8CHOPE OF THE Ilis,|

commendatour of Icolmekyle and Ardchattaiu.
and speciale in the forge v en ws the by-rvne fruc-
tis of the kirkis and bischop thriddis of Lewis for
certane zeris bigane, and sindry vther gratitudis
and fauouris sehewin be the said bisehop to we,
to be bund and oblist, and be the tenor heirof,
byndis and oblissis ws and our airis, for ourself
and for our kyne, freyndis, servandis, adherentis,
partakeris, and dependeris vpoun ws, to tak plane
and trew and ane efald part with the said bischop,
commendatour forsaid, in all his actiones, clames,
and quarrellis and debattis aganis all deidlie the
[royall ?] auetorite onlie exceptit ; and mairattour,
sail with my haill force and power, inbring and vp*
lift the said bischoppis forsaidis fructis, rentis,
and emolumentis and commodities quhatsumeuir
belangand or pertening to the said bischop, be
quhatsumewir titill or rycht, within the boundis

* General Register of Deeds, vol. 15, fo. 143. Obliga-
tion recorded 30th May, 157G.

■J- John Campbell, paternal uncle to John Campbell of
Caldar, and successor to Bishop Carsewel).

OF ION A. 79

of the His of Scotland, and sail causs his servan-
dis be answerit thairof, and that of the thingis
alsweill that he hes presentlie rycht to, as he sail
chance to obtene rycht or titill to in tymes earn-
ing ; and gif ony man mak stop or impediment,
molestatioun, or contradictioun to the said bischop
or his chalmerlanis, servandis and factouris, or
fail to him in ony sort, sail causs, after my
power, the samin be amendit to the said bischop-
pis contentment, and procur and causs the said
bischop be thankfulle pay it, and sail mak his L.
and his commissioneris and factouris thankfull
payment of all thingis a wand him within my cun-
treis, and salbe obedient to his L. and deputis and
commissioneris anent all guid ordinances, lawis,
and constitutionis and correctionis concerning the
kirk, as the actis and constitutionis of the reformit
Kirk of Scotland beris, and wes vsit in the last
bischoppis tyme.* And gif I, or ony pertening
me, dissobeyis or opponis ourselfis heirto or fal-
zies to the said bischop or his commissioneris, fac-
touris or chalmerlanis, the samin to be amendit
at the bischoppis ordour and sycht, and his min-
isteris and clergie that sail assemble with him for
the time : and in cais, as God forbid, I faill to
my lord bischop and commendatour foirsaid in
the premisses, or in ony principale poynt that

* That is in the time of Bishop Carsewell.

SO HISTORIC \\. \< COUNT

may be fnndine and felt, and amendis not the sa-
min, in that eais ] to fcjne all promit kyndnes, fa-
noui', and protl'eit that I haif of the said bisehop
in tymes CUming : And for the fay th full obser-

ring and keeping of this my obligations* oonsenftii

that the saminbe resist rat and insert in the com-
■ris l>nikis of the Sky,*' and the Ottnmisseril
i)uikis of Ycolmkill, and the l)ukis of counsale,
and to he promest to kep the liwill. and to have
the strenth of ane act of the lords of counsale
and sessioun, and of the saidis eonnnisseris
letteris to j)ass thairvpon in form as efl'eris;
and to that effect he thir presentis for r
tratioun and inserting of thir presentis abone-
writtin in the forsaidis Imikis, and, hecans I euld
nocht writt myself, I haif causit Rannald Angus-
oun, persoim of Oig, subscryve this present obli-
gatioun at my command, with my hand led on the
pen, the xvj day of Aprile, in ane thousand five
hundred) threscoir and threttyn yeiris. hefoir thir
Avitnessis, Andro Calder, Jhone C'amhle, sone and
:t operand air to Donald ('amble of Ycharauchin,
Alexander Monro, notor-puhlict, with vtheris di-
vers; andals, lies causit the said Alexander Mon-
ro, notar, to subscryve the samin in my name, in

* This branch of the Commissary Records of the hies, ai
well as the branch kept at Icolmkill, appears to be amiss-
ing. It is to be hoped that ere long- some at least of these
volumes will be discovered.

OF IONA. 81

maner abonewritten : And for faythfull obedience
to the said bischop, and thankfull payment, as
Ferquhar bischop and Rorie Bischop gat accord-
ing to the rentell of the His and contractis maid
to the saidis bischoppis, I obliss my airis to my
lord bischop now and his successouris, and to that
effect constitutis, makis, creatis, and ordanis Mes-
teris Richert Strang and Alexander Mauchane,
conjunctlie andseverale,my procuratouris, to com-
peir befoir the lordis and registrat this obliga-
tioun in my name, promittendo de rato et grata,
& ca ., sub ypotheca, & ca ., befoir thir witnessis foir-
saidis, day, yeir, and place abonewrittin. (Sic
subscribitur), I Ronald Angus on, persoun of Wig
in Lewis, subscryvis this present obligatioun at
the command of ane honourable man, Roderick
M'Cloid of the Lewis, becaus he culd not writt
himself, his hand led on the pen : I, Ronald An-
guson, persoun of Wig, with my hand, ad pre-
miss a.

Ita est Alexander Monro, notarius-publicus,
requisitus in premissis teste manu propria.

NO. IV. — OBLIGATION, SURETIES FOR JOHN CAMPBELL OF
CALDER TO THE BISHOP OF THE ILES,* 1575.

Be it kend till all men be thir present lettres,
we, Coleyn Campble of Barbrek, Donald

* Gen. Reg. Deeds, vol. 15, fo. 78. Obligation record-
ed 2Tth March, 1576.

B8 HISTORK M

Campble of Acherachin, Jhooe CampUa of Dvn-
itafniche, and Dougall Campble of imraw, grantis
to haif l)iuidiii and oblist ourscllis, our airis,
and assignais, souertis. cautioneris. and dettouris

«pective, i 1 U mm af wb for our wwim partis, viz,
Ilk ane of we l\>v the mobm of the hundrotfi and

tuentie firlrin vsuale money of Scotland, haifand
>v and t'uurss of payment far the tvme, and
that for Jhone Campble of Caldkr, be his
causing" and command, extending* in haill sovm to
sextene hundreth merkis, money forsaid, to be
payit thankfulle to ane reuerend fader in God,
Jhoke Bishop of the Ilis, and comendatour of
Ardchattane, his aris, exeeutouris, and assigneis,
at the daies following, that is to say, audit hun-
dreth merkis thairof to be payit aueht days im-
mediatlie preceding the Merthnes, in the yeir of
God l m v° et sevinte-sex, and the remanent audit
hundreth merkis at Witsonday and Mertimess be
equale halfis, promittit be the said Jlione Camp-
ble of Colder to the said reuerend fader for the
heretahle few is of eertane landisof the priorie (>f
Ardchattane, quhilk sovme of sextene hundreth
merkis, money forsaid, we byndis and oh!i
our airis and assignais, to content and pay to the
said reuerend fader, his airis and assignais rc-
pectrue, ilk ane of us for his a win pairt, at the
termes forsaid and maner ahonewritten, of our
awin proper geir; but fraud, gile, postponitioun,

OF IONA. 83

cavillatioun, or difference quhatsumevir, vnder
the pane of periure and infamie, and payment o£
the said reuerend fader, his airis, exeeutouris, and
assignais, of skayth, dampnage, and expensis, as
thai sail incur in the craving and obtening of the
said sowme, quhill thai be compleitlie payit thair-
of :* And for the mair verificatioun heirof, we
haif subscryvit this our present obligatioun with
our awin propir handis, sa mony of ws as culd
writt, and sa mony of ws as culd not writt, we
haif causit the notar vnderwrittin subscrive for
ws, at Ardchattane, the tent day of the moneth
of November, anno Domini l m v c and sevinte-five
yeris, befor thir witnessis, Archbald Campble ap-
perand of the Otter, Jhone Ballych M'Neill v c au-
chyne, Jhone Campble, sone to Donald Campble
of Acherauchin, Patrik Makgillecreist v c Arthour,
Hectour Boydache Makneill v c auchin, Schir Jhone
Lawmond, vicar of Innerkelane, and Duncane
Campble, minister of Ardchattane. (Sic subscribi-
turj, Donald Campble of Acherauchin, Jhone
Campble of Inuerleuir, Dowgall Campble of In-
ueraw. Colyne Campble of Barbrek, and Jhone
Campble, capitane of Dounstafniche, with our
handis at the notaris pen underwritten, becaus we
culd not writt.

Ita est Dowgaldus M'Arthour, notarius, in

* Clause of Registration omitted, being in common form.

84 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

testimonium premissorum pro Colino Campble
de Barbrek, et Johanni Campble, capitanco de
Dunstafniche, so nescicntibus scribere, rogatua et
requisitus manu sua.

IJhone Campble of Calder, bjndifl and oblissifl
me, my airis, executouris, and assignais, to re-
lief and kepe skaythlcssall the souerties and det-
touris abonewritten, thair airis, executouris, and
assignais, at the handis of Jhone Bischop of the
His, his airis, executouris, and assignais, anent
payment of the said sowme of sextene hundretb
merkis, witness my handwritt.

(Sic svbscribitur J, Jhone Campble of Calder.

NO. IV. — OBLIGATION, JAMES MACDONALD OF CAST ELL
CAMES TO THE BISHOP OF THE ISLES, 1575-6.

Be it kend till all men be thir present lettres,
Me, James M'Donill growemycii of Casteli.
Cammes, sikerlie to be bunden and oblist, and be
the tenor of thir presentislelelie and treulie byndis
andoblissesmej my airis, executouris, and assigned.
in the sikerest forme of obligatioun that may be
devisit, to ane lleuerend fader in God, Jhone
Biscnor of the Ilis and commendatour of
Ycolmekyill and Ardchattane, That we sail con-
tent, pay, and thankfullie deliuer to the said
Reuerend fader, his airis, executouris, or assigneis,
all males and deuteis pertening to the said reuer-
end fader within North Vyest, Slait, and Troter-

OF IONA. 85

nes, that I, or my factouris in my name, tuik vp
or intrometit with sen the decess of umguhile
Donald M'Donald gorme of Troternes,* to the
tyme of the dait of the partising and deuisioun
maid betwix me and Clane-alespik clerychf of the
said Donill M'Donill gormes rowmes and boundis,
and in safar as I nor my factouris hes nocht in-
tromettit nor tane vp the said Reuerend faderis
males and dewiteis within the boundis foirsaidis
betwix the 6aid M'Donill gormes deceiss and the
decissioun foirsaid, we sail give vtheris dettouris
thairfor, quha hes tane vp the samin, sua that
he may clerlie knaw quhom to creif thairof.
But nevertheless byndis and oblissis me, my airis,
executouris, and assigneis, to content and pay to
the said Reurend fader, his airis, executouris, or
assigneis, all males and dewiteis restand awand to
him bayth of kirk and kirklandis, within North
Vyest and Slait, sen the tyme of the divisioun for-
saidto this dait,andsiclykintymes cuming, during
the minor it e of Donald M 'Donill, J sone and air to
the said vmqle Donald M'Donill gorme of Troter-

, -# Nephew to the obligant in this bond, being the son
of his elder brother.

f A branch of the Clandonald North, or Macdonalds of
Skye and North Uist, descended from Archibald or Gille-
spick cleirache, uncle to the obligant in this bond.

J Grand nephew and ward of the obligant, James
Macdonald of Castle Cames,
I

K6 HISTORICAL account

m s, and farther, salang as I broik the sakBfl kirk
and kirklandis; that is to Bay, for the kirklandis
and teyndis of Sandy, tuentie bollis beir, of
the mett and niesour of Vyest ; ffor the landis of
Vngcnab in Vyist, with the pendiclis and perti-
nentis thairof, fourtie-aucht mofef* of beir, of the
custonio and vse of Vyist ; ffor the landis of
Kirkebost, auchtene males of grane, tua bollis beir,
ihrettie cnbakis qnhite cheiss, andane plaid, yerlie ;
ffor the landis of Carinche, aucht males and ane
mart; ffor the landis of Bakiafaftlie in Il!era,sextene
males ; for the third part of the personage of
Kilmorie in Vyist, auchtene males ; ffor the third
of the fermes of Halskienagailechie, tuentie males
grane, and the third part of ane mail ; ffor the
personage of Kilmoir in Slait, xviij merkis money ;
and for the bischoppis third part of the said kirk,
xvj merkis : And this yerlie, alsweill of yeris
bigane as to cum, sen the dait of the partesing
and devisioun forsaid, insafar as is vnpeyit, accord-
ing to the said reuerend faderis rentell, and the
payment of the bigannis to be maid ony tyme
betwix this and mydsymmer, vpon xv dayis warn-
ing. Providing alwayis, that I sail not be haldin,
in tymes cuming, to pay for sa mony of the saidis
landis as sal happen to be waist and not inhabite
in during their being w T ast throw weir or inuasion

* This word is believed to be of Scandinavian origin ;
and to have been, if it is not still, in use in Orkney.,

OF IONA. 87

of Inymeis, that I may not stop or lett : and the
yerlie payment of the males and dewiteis of the
saidis landis and kirks in tyme cuming to be
yerlie maid in Ycolmkyll, betwix Petersmess and
Beltane ; and forther, gif it happinnis the landis
of Trout ernes, or any part thairof, cum in my
handis, oblisses ws in likmanner to satisfie the
said reuerend fader and his factouris of his males
and dewiteis within the samin, insafar as I sail
haif intromission therwith. Inlykmanner, oblisses
me and my air is, executouris, and assigneis, to
fulfill to the said reuerend father, his airs, ex-
ecutouris, and assigneis, the obligatioun maid be
the said vmquhile Donald M'Donill gorme to the
said reuerend father, concerning the inbringing
and peying of his dettis that lyis within the said
Donaldis boundis, and all pointis and heidis con-
tenit thair intill, insafar as lyis in my handis or
power, with the power and force of my self, freyn-
dis, parttakeris, and dependeris vpoun me, as the
said Donald M'Doni]l gorme wes bundin in all
pointis contenit in the said obligatioun, of the
dait at Dounsceiche the xvj day of Januar, the
yeir of God l m v c and seventie-tua yeirs. Attour
byndis and oblisses me, in manir abone written,
to causs my sone Jhone Gig satisfie the said re-
uerend fader of all skayth sustenit be him throw
the breaking of the said reuerend faderis blak
boitt, committed by the said Jhone Oig vpoun

88 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

the eoist of Kyntyir, in the moneth of Merche,
the yeir of God l m v c seventie-four yeris, throw
the taking of hir cabillis and ankris fra hir to the
said Jhone Oig and his complices, and that at
the said rencrend faderis awin sycht, 88 I can
appoint, and drif thaine be bidding and loving, or
ellis be the sycht of arbytratouris and freyndis,
to be chosyn betwix tham to that effect, howsone
the said reuerend fader requiris the samin. And
for observing and keeping of all and syndry the
premises, sail causs act thameselfis and souerteis,
conjunctlie and seuerale, thameselfis andyair airis,
in the buikis of our souerane lordis counsale, and
in the buikis of the toun of Edinburcht.* And als
byndis and oblisses me and my airis to relief my
saidis cautioneris, but hurt, dampnage, or skayth,
at the said reuerend faderis handis. And in caiss
I faill, that lettres pass at thair instance in my
contrair, for thair relivance. And for the suir
observatioune and keping of this my present
obligatioun, becaus I culd not writt myself, I
haif subscryvit this present with my hand on
the pen led by the notar vnder written at my
command, be me speciale requirit thairto, at
Edinburgh, the xvij of Marche, the year of God
im yC threscour fivetene yeris, befor thir wit-
nesses, Archbald Campble,appeirand of the Otter

* The clause of Registration, being in common form,
has been omitted here.

OF IONA. 89

Donald M'Kynnie of Ostage, Jhone M'Conill
M 'James, servitour to James M'Conill, and Wil-
liame Cuming, notar-publick.

(Sic sub$cribitu7*),Ij8Lmes M'Conill growmeicht,
with my hand at the pen led by W. Cuming
notar-publick, be me speciale desirit thairto.

NO. V. — OBLIGATION ANGUS MACDONALD OF DUNDYVEG
TO THE BISHOP OF THE ISLES,* 1580.

Be it kend till all men be thir present lettres,
ws Angus PjI'Conill of Donyvaig, to be bundin
andoblist, and, be the tenor of this present obliga-
tioun, byndis and oblisses ws in the maist suir
forme of obligatioun, that we sail fortife, mentyne,
and defend Jhone Bischop of Ilis, and sail mak
him thankfull payment of all by-rviie dewties
awand be ws to him, and sielyke sail leif our
bailie-depute and our servandis to pay to him ;
als, sail pas with our forssis throw all the Ilis
with him to caus all utheris within the boundis
mak him payment, or ellis thair reddiest gudis and
geir, insafar as he crauis, conforme to our obliga-
tioun gevin to the said bischop, and subscriuit be
ws, the erle of Ergile and the laird of Auchinbrek,
our cautioneris, and the sal fulfill the said obliga-
tioun and euerie point contenit thair intill, off the
dait the xvij day of Junij, the yeir of God l m *r c

* Gen. Reg. of Deeds, vol. 19. obligation recorded 16th.
June 1561,

1)0 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

lxxix. And siclyke, conforme to our contract and
vreittu maid be ws to the said reuerend fader,
l>aith anent kirkis and landis within our said
boundis; siclyke we bind and obliss ws in the
stratest maner of obligatioun, that quhow sone
the said reuerend father ehansses be way of law
to compryse ony landis or heretageifl pretexting
Lauchlane M'Clayne of Do ward, within the boun-
dis of Hay [or] Kyntir, that we sail delywer to
the said reuerend father thankfull payment of the
sowmes that he sail compryse the saidis landis
[for] at twa or thrie ressonabill tennis at the
fardest, as we sail agrie with the said reuerend
father, and tak of him ane iust infeftment of the
saidis landis, as men of law can devyse ; and quhill
the said payement be maid, bindis, and oblisses
ws to him in the said comprising, and also oblisses
ws to put the saidis landis he comprysses to the
greittest availl and proffeitt that the saidis landis
hes bene at of beffoir to the said reuerend father
and sail fortifie, meintein, and defend him, his
airis, and assignais in the possessioune of the
samine.* In witnes heirof, I hawe subscrywit this
my obligatioun with my hand, at Doneveg, the
penult day of Junij, the yeir of God l m v c and
lxxx yeiris, beffoir thir witnessis, Archibald M'
Angus Elych, Alexander Campbell, persoun of

* Clause of Registration omitted, ut supra.

OF IONA. 91

Killychmynewyr, Duncane Campbell, minister of
Ardchattane, and Patrik M'Arthour.
(Sic subscribiturj,

Angus M' Donald of Donovaig.

NO. VI. — ACT OF THE LORDS OFCOUNCIL AND SESSION, in
causa BISHOP OF THE ISLES AGAINST THE ISLESMEN,*
1580.

Tertio Decembris, anno 1580.
Anent the sumondis raisit at the instance of ane
reuerend father in God, Jhonne Bischop of the
Iles aganes Gilemane (or Gileinane) M'Neill of
Baray, Rorie Og, his sone and apeirand air,

Allane M'Cayne muddort of Allantyrem,

M'Conneill M'Nicoll, official' in Trouternis, Don-
ald M'Gillasbic cleriche baillie of Trouternes,
Hutcheoune his brother thair, and Ronnald
Calvoch thair, Murdo M'Clayne of Lochebowie,
Angus M'Doneill of Doneveg, Ronald M'Doneill,
Lauchlane M'Conoquhy officiarin Sker of Quhan-
ininche,f Ronald M'Conoquhy M'Ane his brother,
Neill M'Duff[ie], Neill M'Ky of Cherand-J
Murdoch M'Duffie of Collinsey, Gillechrist Og
M'Culeis in Ardnahow, Moir Nene Rannald Moir,

* Register of Decreets of Council and Session, vol. 82.
fo. 169.

f This word is doubtful ; probably Skeirkenzie in Kintyre
(mentioned in No. I.) is meant.
( \ Perhaps Kilchiaran in Kintyre.

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

of rmqle AUaster Oig M'Concili, Gilles-

cliallum M-Gillt\schallu:n of Juisav, Roderic, M ;
Cloid of Lowis, Jofane M"Ane of Arinamurchan,
Lauchlane M-Clane of Dowart, Tormond M'Cloid
of Herreis, Donald M'Doneill Gormoche; and all

WOai Mndrie UiUMlril and cnratonris of tlx
L&uchlane M ; md Donald M'Doneill

Gormoch: To heir it be fundin, be decreit of the
coaaaale, that the saidis persones, and ilk ane
ofthame, lies intromettit with the maillis, ferinis,
teyndis, and deuties pertenyiag and belonging to
the landisand kirks pertenyngto the wad re nerend
father within the bischoprik of His and abbay of
Ycolmkill, ilk ane of thame for thair awinpairtis
of the cropis and ye iris of God l m v c lxxij, lxxiij,
and diuerss rtheris yeiris ; extending' to diuerss
availl, quantetie, and prices lyk as at mair lend
is contenit in the saidis summondis, actis, and
letters maid thairupoun befoir. The said re-
ui'ii ml father compeirand be Mr Ah c
Mauchane, his procuratour, and the forsaidhl
. defendaris, being" lauchfullie swnmond
to this actioun oftimes callit and nocht coiupoirit,
the lordis of connsale continewis the saidis sum-
mondis in the samine forme, force, and effect, as
it is now, but prejudice of pairtie vnto the xij day
of Aprile nixttocum, with continewatioune of
dayis, and ordanes the said lvnerend father to
half letteris to summond the witnessis that were

OF IONA. 93

summond of befoir and compeirit nocht, to be
summond agane vnder gritar panes; and ma
witness, gif he pleisses, for preveing of the poyn-
tis of the saidis summondis agane the said day;
and ordanes the deposiciones of witnessis ellis
takin in the said mater to be closit quhill the
samyne day; and that the partie be warnit of
this continewatioune, and to heir the witnessis
suorne, and siclik, to compeir personalie befoir
the saidis lordis the said day, with continewa-
tioune of dayis, to gif, juramentum calumpnie
ypoune the haill poyntis and articulis contenit
in the Siidis summondis; with certeficatioune to
thame, and thay failzie, thay salbe haldin pro
confessis.

NO. "VII. — CONTRACT BETWEEN THE BISHOP OF THE ISLES
AND LAUCHLAN MACLEAN OF DOWAUT,* 1580.

At Ardchattane, the aucht day of December,
the yeir of God l ra v c and fourscoir yeiris, it is
appoynit, aggreit, and fynalie endit, betwix ane
reuerend father in God, Johne, Bischope oe
Llis, on that ane part, and Lauchlane M'Clane
of Do wart on the vther part, in maner, forme,
and effect, as eftir followis — That is to say, the
said Lauchlane M'Clane of Do wart takand the
bur din on him for his kyn, freyndis, pairttakeris,

* Gen. Reg. of Deeds, vol. 19. The contract is re-
corded 26th December, 1580.

94 hi-.

and dependeris vpoun him; and ifetm, in respect
id Lauchlane being Bailie, sould defend the
iiiimoniteis, previleges. and fredomes quhatsueuir
gmntii to the bieclfcgprili of His and j)]ace of
Icolmkyle be the kingis of Scotland, son the E ffl
fundatioun of the said place to the d.'v and dait
of tlnr presenilis: Theirfbr the said Lauchlane
to he bundin and oblist, and his airis. totak plane
poser with the said reuerend fader to assist and
mantyne him in all and syndrye his rychtis and
actionis, ether presentlie in his hand or yit to
cum; and in speciall, in the collecting and in-
bringing of the fructis, rent is, and emolumentis
pertening to tlie bischop of the His, abhacie of
Ycohnekill, and priourie of Ardquhattane, within
the boundis of the His ; and the said Lauchlane
M'Clane oblisses him to pass with the said reue-
rend fader with his forssis and bring in the saidis
proffettis within sex dayes nixt eftir he be chargit
be the said reuerend father thairto, according to
his power, sua that the said Laehlane be nocht
chcrgit be the kingis grace or my lord of Ergile
seruice in the meyntyme. Attour, the said
Lauchlane byndis and oblissis him to caus< the
said reuerend fader joiss and broik the ile of
Ycolmkill, the landis and barony of Ros>>
half of Ballifoill, and the grange of Kilmenie in
Ylay, als frelie with all males, dewiteis, setting
[and] resing of tenentis, removing and dispossess-

OF IONA. 95

ing o£ fre halderis, according to tlie or dour of
law, vse and consuetude of Ycolmkill and barony
of Rosse, als frelie as ony bischop or abbot broikit
the samine, sen the first fundatioun of the said
place of Ycolmekill; and sal tak Lauchlane
McDonald M'Conych and his galey of seruice of
the saidis landis of Rosse; and sal neuer place
ane Stewart-depute vpoun the saidis landis of
Rosse induring the said reuerend faderis liftyme ;
bot onlie the thriddis of eourtis, as Bailie, to per-
tene to the said Lauchlane and his airis: And
sail suffer na maner of persoun or personis to
oppress the saidis landis of Ycolmekill and
Rosse, or tenentis thairof, or trouble or molest
thame in ony sort with ather stenting, conyoiu,
gerig seruice, or ony maner of exactioun; and
except four men out of Rosse onlie, and four men
furth of Ecolmekill, to pass and kepe the fortalice
of Carnebulg,* vpoun thair awin expensis, salang-
as M'Clane is in oistingf to his returning; and
in all vther causis, requiris the seruice of the
saidis tenentis of Ycolmekill and Rosse, with the
haill males, dewiteis, quert Stewart \\ conforme

* A strong fortress in one of the Treshinish Isles, off the
north-west coast of Mull.

■f In oisting, that is attending a host or army under the
ing or his lieutenant.

% Or quowort, a particular old duty exacted from the
various parcels of lands in the shape of certain portions of
meal and cheese. The derivation of the word is uncertain.

9G HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

to the rentell and teyndis to the said reuerend
fader, induring his lyftyme ; and the saidis tenentis
to serve him onlie and the place of Ycolmekill,
and to be his houshald induring his Jiftyme.
Mairattour, the said Lauchlane, takand the bur-
din on him as said 18, bindis and oblissis him and
his airis to causs the haill teyndis of Mull, and I
all vitheris places within his dominioun, to be
thankfullie peyit to the said reuerend fader yerlie,
or ellis the hiest prices or availlthe saidis teyndis
may be estimat to, in quhois handis that evir the
saidis teyndis be, except onlie samekle of the
saidis teyndis as in the said Lauchlanis awin
handis, to be reseruit to himself for payment of
the dewiteis usit and wont. And anent the teyndis
of Teirey, the said reuerend fader and Lauchlane
M'Clane referris to the commowning of Jhone
M'Clane, Baillie of Morverne, Jhone Campble of
Eriskay, Neill M'Ewin avoych, Donald M'Ewine,
and Patrik M'Gilchreist. And, mairattour, sail
causs the said reuerend fader be answerit and
obeyit, and his commiseris, visitatiouns, spyrituall
correctiouns, and pecuniall panis, as ony bischop
is obeyit within this realme of Scotland. And'
anent the haill teyndis of Mull, that ony man
clames rycht to, their rychtis to be producit befoir
the bischop and cheptour of Ycolmekyll, the said
Lauchlane M'Clane being present. And alsua
the said Lauchlane byndis and oblissis him to

OF IONA. 97

content and pay to the said reuerend fader the
soume of ane thousand merkis, in pairt of payment
to ane guid compt of the byrun males and dewiteis
of the kirklandis, that the said Lauchlane broikis,
perteining to the bischopriks of the Ylis and
abbacie of Ycolmekyll sent the said bischoppis
entrie, quhilk was the day of

of the year of God l m v c sevinte tua
yeirs : And mairattour byndis and oblissis him to
produce his chartour of feu of samony landis as he
haldis of the bischopriks of the Ylis and abacie of
Ycolmekill, and all rycht he may clame, befor
Schir Newyne M 'Vicar, as commissar of Ergile,
and Dougal M'Arthour, notar publiek, betwixt
the day and dait heirof, and the xxviij day of
December instant, and sail gif the autentik copy
and transumpt thairof to the said reuerend fader,
that he may knaw quhat landis he haldis of the
said reuerend fader, sic as Duncane M'Dougall,
fear of Donnoldych, for payment of the soume of
ane thousand merkis for the expenssis and re-
nunciatioun of ane decreit, as efter followis, that
is to say, thre hundreth merkis thairof at the
feist of Sanct Mauenis fair nixt thairefter, and
thre hundredth merkis in compleit payment of
the said soume of ane thousand merkis at the
feist of Candlmess nixt, in the yeir of God I ra v c
and fourscoir yeris. And the said Lauchlane
byndis and oblissis him to compeir befor the lordis
K

HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

( t seflrioun, and thair, qnhatsumeinr sc c urito the
tordifl can devise \\>v the said reuercnd (actor,
said Lauehlane im to mafc and per-

form the samine betwixt the day and dait of thir
■itis. and Beltane oixl beireftir following; —
flbr the quhilkis causes, sua to be done and per fo r -
nrit, the said reuerend fader byndis and oblissis him,
rpoun the premonitioun of xv davis, to oompeir
before the lordis sessioun and eounsall, and
the ressait of cautioun and securite for tlie yerlie
payment of the males and d< rtening to

the hishopric of Ylis and Ecolmekvll as the saidis
lordis of eounsall devise, the said rem rend fader
soil renunce and simplieiter discharge the d
obtenit aganis the said Lauehlane M'Clanc of
Dovyart, anentis his fewis, pertening to the
Bischoprik of the His and abaci e of Ycolmekill,
and sail put him in the samine place he was before
the obtcning of the said decreit, and the
Lachlanis charter to half the samyne forme, force,
and effect, as it had befor the < of the

said decreit; and gif neid beis, the said rcia-
fader byndis and oblissis him to pas with the
Lauehlane M'Clane of Do wart, vpoun the said
Lauchlanis expenssis, to obtene ane confirmatioun
vpoun the chartour gevin be umquhile Maister
Jhone Kerswell, sometime Bischop of the His,*

* This charter has not yet been discovered, which,
however/nm-t have been granted between 1166 and 1572,

OF ION A. 99

and sail fortifie, mentyn, and defend the said
Lauchlane in all his honourable and lessum
actionis, as appertenis ane bischop to do to the
said Lauchlane, as his spirituale sone ; and als the
said reuerend fader oblissis him, incaiss that the
said feu chartour maid be the said vmquhile
Maister Jlione Kerswell to the said Lauchlane be
nocht fudin sufficient, in that caiss, the said
reuerend fader oblissis him to mak, seill, subscriue,
and deliver to the said Lauchlane, ane feu char-
tour, als suir as men of law can deviss, for sic
soumes of money as he and the said Lauchlane
can agree; and alsua the said reuerend fader
byndis and oblissis him to obtene lettres of
poinding and horning from the lordis of secreit
counsale and sessioun, to warrand and keep
skaythles the said Lauchlane, in inbringing to
the said reuerend fader the males and dewiteis
of the bischoprik of Ylis, and abacie of Ycolmkill :
— Attour bayth the saidis pairteis ar content and
consentis that thir presentis be extendit in the
most large forme, with all claussis necessar, and
that the samine be renewit als oft as neid beis,
be adviss of men of law. In witness heirof, baith
the saidis pairteis lies subscrivit thir presentis
with thair handis, day, yeir, and place forsaidis,

by Bishop Carsewell, to Hector Maclean of Dowart,
Lauchlane's father. A confirmation of this charter, was
granted by James VI., in the year 1587.

100 IIISTOKICAL ACCOUNT

befoir those witnessis — Jhone M'Lane, Baillie of
Morverne, Archibald Campble, apperand of the
Otter, Jhone Campble, constable of Dunstaf-
niche, Jhone M'Doncll, alias Campble, Patrick
M'Carthour, and James Kyncaid, notar public.
[Sic subscribitur] Jhon Bischop of the His,
Lauchlane M'Clane, of Dowart; Jhone M'Clane,
as witness, Jhone M'Donald,alias Campble,witness ;
Jacobus Kincaid, nutarius testis in premiitis.

NO. VIII. — GIFT OF THE ESCHEIT OF SUNDRY ISLESMl N
TO THE BISHOP OF THE ISLES,* 1581.

Ane lettre maid to Joiine, Bisciior of Yllis,
his airis and assignais, of the gift of the eschete
of all gndis, moveabill and unmoveabill, &c, that
may fall and becnm in our soverane lordis handis,
quhilkis pertenit to umcpihile Donald M'Gillespic
Clereiche, bailie of Trouternes, Huchone M'Gil-
lespic his bruthir, Maconeill Maknicoll,

officar, of Trouternes, Nicoll hisbrothir, Murdoche
M'Clane of Lochbuye, Lauchlane M'Clane of
Doward, and Janus M'Donald Gromicheof Caste]
Cames ; and now pcrtening, &c, to our soverane
lord, &c, be ressoun of escheit, throw being of the
saidis persounis, and evirilkane of thame, ordourlie
denunceit our said soverane lordis rebellis, and
put to the home, be verteue of lettres in the four-

• Registrum Secreti SigiUi, vol. 48, fo. 29.

OF IONA. 101

formes, purchest at the instance of the said Johne
Bischop of Illis, for non-payment of thair farmes,
maillis, teindis, and dewiteis, quhilkis thai have in-
trometit with respective pertenjing to theBishoprik
of Illis and Abbacie of Icolmekill and ar pairtis of
the patrimony of the samin, and pertening to the
said Johne, be verteue of his provision thairof of
the croppis and yeir of God l m v c lxxv, lxxvi,
lxxvii, and Ixxviii yeiris, croppis, last bypast, and
remanyng at our said soverane lordis home, be
the space of ane yeir with the mair, &c. At
Dalkeith, the xxvi day of Julij, the yeir of God
forsaid(l581.)

Per signaturam. I c merkis.

In concluding my remarks upon this " Court
of the Bishop of the Isles," I venture to suppose
that the Bishop, knowing the men he had to deal
with, selected lona for the place of meeting, that
the oaths which he took from the islanders might,
for more security, be sworn upon the Black
Stones.

Here occurs a long blank in the history of lona.
The reader may fancy to himself the Spirit of
reformation for upwards of 200 years — reform-
ing by law — carrying away the tomb-stones — the
monuments of the mighty — to build huts and en-
closures, or perhaps to adorn modern church-yards,
where to this day they betray themselves.

102 HISTORICAL AOCOl NT

In 1566-7, we left Marion Maclean prioress of
Iona; and in 1790, we find Mr Allan Maclean,
schoolmaster, the only religious instructor! This
good man may he said to have been Abbas Ht/ensh
for these 50 years past.

In addition to Mr Maclean, Government was
pleased some years ago to give Iona a respectable
clergyman, Mr Campbell.* This acquisition she
owes, I believe, to the intercession and exer-
tions of the Rev. Dr M'Leod of Campsie,f a lineal
descendant of the Norwegian kings, and possessing
a princely mind. By dwelling upon the amiable
— the excellent — the sublime — his soul has taken
an impress of them. lie, in conjunction with the
venerable principal Baird, has done more to repay
Iona than any one man now alive. Of this fact
few, comparatively, arc aware, because it is his
character to

" Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame."
The^aiV sea: — last at the cross, and first at the
grave — have not been unmindful of the deeds of
Iona. In the summer of 1832, the sum of £25
was collected by an English lady, and placed in
the hands of the Minister, Mr Campbell, for the
establishment of an infant school. It is now begun
with every prospect of success. I am also in-
formed that an Edinburgh lady has this summer,

• Succeeded now by Mr M'Vean.

f IS'ow of St Columba, Glasgow.

OF IONA. 103

collected £27 for the same object. But their
school-book, which must be in Gaelic, poor urchins
is also in manuscript still ! This MS. the author
prepared and furnished. The Hymns are chiefly
translations. To enable the public to judge
whether or not they aught to be printed, he begs
leave here to submit a specimen.

URNUIGH PHAISDEAN li I

Tha sinn cruinn ann ad lathairse

Paisdean lag tla,
Ti'nn a dhiaraidh ort eolais

Ann an dige ar la,
O 'Aithair na trocair

D'am buin mdrchuis gun cbrioch,
Seall a nuas ann an caoimhneas,

Air naoidheanan li !

Ann an linn Cholum-chille

B'e so innis an aigh !
Bha e ainmeal an eolas,

Mar tha eolaich ag radn,
O 'Atliair gach trocair

Ann ad' mhorachd gun chrioch,.
Seall fathast an caoimhneas

Air naoidheanan li I

Ge h-iosal ar bothan

A' measg chnocaibh is ghleann,
Bha do Mhac fein air docair

'Se gun socair d'a cheann
Air a sga 'san, ! deonaich

Ann ad' mhorachd gun chrioch
Seall fathast an coimhneas

Atir naoidheanan li !

1 1 1 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

CHAPTER VII.

IONA VIEWED AS A PLAGE OF ROYAL SEPULTl.'RE

NAMES OF SCOTTISH KINGS, AND THE MANNER

OF THEIR DEATH KINGS OF IRELAND, OF NOR-
WAY, &C.

The deep interest of Iona can be felt only amidst
the moral sublimity of her ruins. A visit to it
lias been found by many to be a school for the
heart.

u The song has ceased, but its sound is still in our ears."

Of the race of the Druids we cannot with cer-
tainty condescend uv>on any who reposes here, it
being one of the particular tenets of that religion
not to commit ought to writing. This we do
know, however, namely, that they and the Find
galians have once and again "mixed steel" in the
" combat of heroes/' and that " Dargo, the
Druid of Be id, they had sent to the green isle
•where his fathers rest." This isle, Dr Smith
Bays, "is supposed to be Iona, to which the last
remains of the Druids, according to Bishoi
Pocock, had retired." Cuthon, or Conn, Dar-

OF ION A. 105

go's son, wishes also, when dying, to be buried
in Iona. "My soul," says he, "mounts on the
meteor's wing (the DruVeug) to the abode of the
brave and good; with my fathers let my body be
placed: let our rest be together in the green isle?

This is proof presumptive at least that Iona
was famous as a place of sepulture in the second
and third centuries ; for, Playfair in his chronology,
makes Ossian flourish about A. d. 300, which so
far agrees with the Annals of Ulster, which say
that Fingal the father of Ossian, was lineally
descended from Niah Neacht, King of Leinster,
! — that he was married first to Graine, daughter
of Cormac who was proclaimed monarch of Ireland,
A. d. 254. Graine having intrigued with Diar-
maid an Tuirc, was repudiated by Fingal, who
married her sister Aibhe, the mother of Ossian.*

In making mention of the nation of dead who
sleep in Iona, I am not prepared to furnish the
sceptic with the amount of proof some " wander-
ing tourists" would demand; but I will submit
evidence enough to satisfy myself; and my know-
ledge of the Highlands, and of the Highland
character, is not that of a " wandering tourist."'
M Fierce in their native hardiness of soul —
True to imagined right above control."

Pinkerton, a man sufficiently nice with regard
to evidence, states — "From the register of St.
* Walker's Hist. Mem. p. 37.

rOBICAX a

Andrew's we learn that our kings, from Kenneth
III. down to Edgar, 1098) wereburied in Hyona."

u 'Tis oumetl" Baja Abercromhy. in his Martial
Achievements, page 6, - khal the monastery of Ily,
or I-colmkill, was bunded about the j ear 560 ;
that the S co ta Kingi were buried there, and their

records kept there till the reign of Malcolm Can-
more." Again, page 94, vol. i — " Fergus the
Second, in the isle of Iona or I-kilmkill, erected
religious house, with a stately church, where
afterwards, his successors were buried, and a
library furnished, with many valuable bo
Of these honest testimonies I might quote a
score; but enow. If this be true, and it receives
confirmation from our most ancient winters, the
" stately church" must have been for the accom-
modation of the Druids; for Fergus began his
reign in the year 404, more than a century before
Columba's arrival. To this epoch I, for my own
part, have no objection, for Walker says, that
our Fergnsia* were descended from Fergus the
son and Ard Filea, I believe, of Fingal, who now,
in the 4th century, begin to reap the fruits of
their departed fathers' fame. This Fergus, the
first crowned head that was buried in Iona, was
ally to Alaric the Goth, at the sacking of Rome.
The blockade of Rome was commenced in 408.

* The name Fergus signifies, fear, a man ; and guth t a voice.

OF ION A. 107

and in 410 the imperial city, who had been a
stranger to fear for 619 years before, was deliver-
ed up. Fergus, therefore, had sufficient time to
be at Rome: and indeed the character of the
"barbarians," as they were called, furnishes no
mean evidence that they were not without Celts
amongst them. " They breathed nothing but war
— their sword was their right — simple and severe
in their manners, they were unacquainted with
the name of luxury. Inured to exercise and toil,
their bodies seemed impervious to disease or pain;
they sported with danger, and met death with
expressions of joy."*

I am now prepared to quote from Monipennie
the names of some of these Kings, together with
the manner of their death and burial. This I
must be allowed to compendize, and render into
modern orthography, both for ease to myself, and
perhaps to the reader.

TOMBS OF THE KINGS OF SCOTLAND.f
B. to Reign.

404. Fergus II., who conquered his realm of Scot-
land of the hands of the Romans and Picts,
beginning his reign in the year of Christ 404.
He was killed in battle by the Romans, the

* Robertson's Hist, of Charles V., vol. i. sec. 1.

-J- The dates in the margin, and those in body of the page,
are taken from different historians, which accounts for dis-
crepancies.

108 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

lGth year of his reign, and buried in Icolm-
kill.

419. Eugenius II., Fergus' second son. He, with
the valiant Graham, gave the Britons and Ro-
mans a most desperate battle* in which were
killed 15,000 Britons and 4000 Scots. In
the seventh year of his reign, Britain \
wholly delivered from Roman tribute. Eu-
genius died in peace in the year 451, and was
buried in Icolmkill.

451. Dongard, the brother of Eugenius. A goodly
wise, and valiant king. He was killed fight-
ing with Constantino, and was buried in Icolm-
kill.

470. Congall, or Conul I. He was a great warrior,
who sorely vexed the Britons and Saxons.
He died in peace, and was buried in Icolm-
kill.

501. Conran, brother to Congall. He was a good
king, and severe Justiciar. Certain traitors,
however, murdered him in his chamber, the
thirty-fourth year of his reign. He was bu-
ried in Icolmkill.

549. Eugenius III. He continued in peace all his days;
died the twenty-third year of his reign, and
was buried in Icolmkill.

558. Congal, or Conal II. A good, just, and godly
prince. He instituted many goodly laws,
concerning churches and churchmen. He
died in peace the eleventh year of his reign,
.and was buried in Icolmkill. (This must be
tl e Conal who gave Iona to St. Columba.)

OF IONA.

109

604. Kenneth I. A good king. He died the first
year of his reign, and was buried in Icolmkill.

569. Aidan. He was a valiant and good king, and se-
vere Justiciar. In his time the Britons and
Scots came into Northumberland against the
Saxons and Picts, and vanquished them in
dangerous battle. The tenth of the spoil was
dedicated to the churches of Scotland ; and
the banners or ensigns taken were sent to
Icolmkill. (So aJso David took the head of
the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem,
together with his armour.)

This Chronology must be nearer the truth than
Pinkerton's ; for this is the Aidan of whom Cumin,
who wrote but sixty years after Columba's death,
says — " That being directed by an angel, in a
dream, he went to the island of Hyona, or Hy,
and there meeting with Aidan, put his hand on
his head, and ordained him king."

Aidan died the 35th year of his reign, and was
buried in Icolmkill.

606. Eugenius IV., Aidan's son, succeeded in the year
606. ' He reigned peaceably for fifteen years,
and was buried in Icolmkill.

632. Donald IV., a good and religious king, holding
peace with his neighbours. He being at fish-
ing with his servants for pastime, perished in
Lochtay, the fourteenth of his reign ; his body
being found, was taken to Icolmkill !

646. Ferchar II., an avaricious tyrant. He was bit

] 10 HISTORICAL A.CCOI M

by a wolf in hunting) whereof ensued a dan-
gerous fever. 1 1 « * died in the eighteenth of |
liis reign, and was buried in Icolmkill.
604. Malduin, or Maoldllin. A godly and wise king.

lie was strangled by h\sivifeh\ the night, on
Suspicion of adultery, the twentieth of his
reign, and was buried in Icolmkill. His
queen and her accomplices were taken next
day and burned.

084. Eugene V. A valiant and good king. He ob-
tained a great victory over Edfred, King of
Northumberland, who was killed, with 10,000
Saxons. He died the fourth of his reign, and
was buried in Icolmkill.

687. Eugene VI. succeeded. He died in peace, and
was buried in Icolmkill.

697. Ambercellach succeeded. He was killed by an

arrow r -shot the second of his reign, and w r as
buried in Icolmkill.

698. Eugene VII. A religious and virtuous king, who

endowed sundry churches liberally. He died
the sixteenth of his reign, and was buried in
Icolmkill.

76 1 . Eugene VIII. A good king, and severe Justiciar.
He was put to death by Donald Lord of the
Isles, and the Earl of Galloway, for assent-
ing to Donald's vices. He himself afterw r ards
degenerated into the most abominable vices,
for which he was killed by his nobles ; and
his familiars and servants were hanged upon
•jibbets. He was buried in Icolmkill.

763. Fergus III. A lecherous king, for which he was

OF IONA.

Ill

murdered by his jealous queen, daughter of
the King of Picts. She confessed the fact,
and then stabbed herself to the heart with a
dagger. The body of Fergus was buried in
Icolmkill 767.

766. Soluoth, or Solvatius. A pampered lazy king.
He died of the gout in the twentieth year of
his reign, and was buried in Icolmkill.

787. Achia. A great and good king. He married the
daughter of Charles the Great (Charlemagne),
King of France and Emperor of Germany,
who bare him three sons and one daughter.
He sent his brother William and sundry no-
bles to France, with 4000 valiant warriors,
to assist his father-in-law in the wars. Wil-
liam prospered greatly, and conquered sundry
nations ; so much so, that the Florentines
commanded live lions to be nourished yearly
upon the public purse, because the lion ram-
pant was the armorial ensign of the sons of
the hills ! King Achaius being aged, died in
peace, and was buried in Icolmkill.

819. Congall, or Conal III. A peaceful king. He
died in the fifth year of his reign, and was
buried in Icolmkill.

824. Dongall ; a brave king. He, preparing a great
army to pass against the Picts, perished in a
boat as he was crossing the water Tay. His
body was found, and buried in Icolmkill.

831. Alpine, Achaius' son. A valiant and good king.
Being rightful heir to the crown of Picts, he,
in a dangerous and cruel battle, killed Fred-

I 1 2 historical u COUNT

crick, their king. The Picts, immediately

elected the lieree and \aliant llntdus, who

Bent ambassadors to Alpine, desiring peace.

Alpine would make no peace. Both armies
prepared, and a dreadful battle was fought

at the bridge of Dunkelt where the Scots

Were Worsted, and King Alpine taken and

beheaded. His body was taken to Icolmkill.

834. Kenneth the second, surnamed the Great. Htj
married the Lord of the Isles' daughter, who
bare him three sons. He gave battle to the
Picts, to their utter extermination ; killed
their king, with all his nobles, and sent his
sword and coat of armour to IcohnluU u in
perpetual memorie." King Kenneth institut-
ed many good laws, and brought the " fatal]
chayre" from Argyle, (t. e. from Dun-'s~
da-imas, now r DunstafFnage) to Scone. (No
favourable specimen of the goodness of his
law s, in my humble opinion !) He died the
twentieth of his reign, and was buried in
Icolmkill.

854. Donald V. A vicious and odious king. Pie was
taken by his nobles, and imprisoned, where
he killed himself. He was buried in Icolm-
kill.

858. Constantine II. A valiant king. He married
the daughter of the Prince of Wales who bare
him two sons and one daughter. In his time,
Hungar and Hubba, with a great fleet of
Dane-, Landed in Fife, and used great cruel-
tics. Constantine came with a great army

OF IONA. 113

against Hubba, and vanquished him. The
Scots being proud of this victory, and ne-
glecting themselves, there followed another
desperate battle. At last the Scots were
vanquished, and Constantine with his nobles
and 10,000 of his army, killed, the fifteeenth
of his reign. He was buried in Icolmkill.

874, Ethus, surnamed the Swift. A luxurious and
uxorious prince. Being imprisoned by his
nobles, he died the third day of melancholy,
having reigned three years. He was buried
in Icolmkill.

876. Gregory, or Grig. A valiant and greatly renown-
ed prince. He ordained that all kings, his
successors, should, at their coronation, make
oath to defend the Christain religion. He
made great conquests, both in England and
Ireland, and built the city of Aberdeen. He
died in 892, and was buried in Icolmkill.

892. Donald VI. A very good king. He died in peace,
the eleventh year of his reign, and was buried
in Icolmkill.

903. Constantine III. A valiant prince, but not
fortunate in wars. He became a canon in
St. Andrew's, where he died, the fortieth of
his reign, and was buried in Icolmkill.

938. Milcolm, or Maol-Callum I. A noble king. He
was traitorously murdered, the ninth year of
his reign, and was buried in Icolmkill.

958. Indulf. A royal warrior. He vanquished in
battle Hagan, Prince of Norway, and Xckelr
Prince of Denmark, but was himself killed

' I 1 HI8TORIC \l. A.CCOUP l"

by stratagem of war, the ninth year of hie

reign, and was buried in I rohnkill.

968. Dufiusj or M'Duff, He was basely murdered

by Donald, captain of Forns, and was buried
in [colmkill.
973. Kenneth III. A severe Justiciar. He caused

500 notable thieves to be banged on gibbets

— (that wa> one notable act.) The Dane-,
with a great licet of Bhipgj arrived at the
mouth of Tay, and destroyed the town of
Montrose, killing all the people, and demol-
ishing the walls ! — Kenneth, with a great
army, marched to oppose their progress,
when there ensued a dreadful battle, and vic-
tory for a long while hung in even scales.
At last one Hay, with his two sons, rallied
the Scots, and by their valour and courage
renewed the battle. The Danes were van-
quished, and a great number slain. The king
rewarded Hay and his two sons, by gi\inu r
them a great part of the spoil of the Danes,
with as much land as a falcon off a man's
hand flew over, which was about six miles in
length, and four in breadth. Kenneth after-
wards, from avarice, killed by poison, Mal-
colm, prince of Scotland ; which act was
ultimately the cause of his own death. He
was buried in Icolmkill.

994. Constantine IV. He was killed in battle at the
town of Crawmond, the second of his reign,
and was buried in Icolmkill.

096 Grimus, Duffs son. A vicious usurper. lie was

OF IONA. 115

killed in battle by Malcolm, and was buried
in Icolmkill.
1004 Mil, or Maol-Colum II. A valiant and wise
king. He was killed by conspiracy, and
buried in Icolmkill.
1034 Duncan I. He was traitorously killed by Mac-
beth, the sixth of his reign, and was buried in
Icolmkill.*
1 040 Macbeth. A valiant prince, and severe Justiciar ;
but at last, by illusion of witches and sorcerers,
he became a cruel tyrant. He was vanquish-
ed by Malcolm Ceann Mor, and killed by
M'DufF, Earl of Fife. His body was taken
to Icolmkill, and there buried.
Hitherto the Gaelic was the universal language
of Scotland — even of the Court. But after Mac-
beth, Maol-Callum-Cean Mor having fallen in
love with, and married Margaret, sister to young
Edgar, King of the English, from love and courtesy
to her, thought of making the English the lan-
guage of the Court, and the royal sepulture,
Dunfermline ! — (" In loving thou do'st well, in
passion not.") — Upon these Celtic heroes, I can-
not help making one reflection, namely, that they
were men, and led their bonneted tribes like men ;
whereas, of some of the nations at this day, we

* " Where is Duncan's body ?"
M'Duff — " Carried to Colme's kill :
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors,
And guardian of their bones." — Shakspeare.

1 16 historical ACCOUNT

may say with Isaiah, kk As for my people, 10001*11
rule over theni."

The Tomb of the Kings o/ 1 Ireland.

765 BeatUB Nial, King of Ireland, who had abdicated

his kingdom, and had been for eight years in

Iona, died. — Ulst. Annals.
736 B. Art-all M'Catheld, King of Connaught, who

had abdicated, died in pilgrimage at Hyona.

—Ibid*

To seek out the names of the other Irish kings
that were buried in Iona, I do not judge of indis-
pensable moment, and therefore proceed to

The Tomb of the Kings of Norroway, that is, of the

Norwegian Race, in Ireland and the Isles.
980 Amluabh or Aulay, son of Sitrick, Prince of the
Normen of Dublin, after his defeat in the
battle of Tarah, took refuge in Iona, where
he died. — Ulst. Ann.

1187 On the 4th of the ides of November, Godred,
King of the Isles, departed this life ; and the
summer following, his body was conveyed to
the island of Hy ! — Cron. of Man.

* Lord Buchan speaks of " long stones which seemed to
have had long inscriptions ;" — one of them has on its edge,
says he, the following antique inscription in the British
character: — Cormac Uufhadda, hie est situs: I. e. Cormac
Barbatus, or Long-bearded, lies here. Cormac M'Aird,
one of the kings of Ireland, who, according to Dr Keating
in his Notitia Hybern'w > was buried here. — Trans. Antiq.
Scot.

OF IONA. 117

12-28 About this time Olave, surnamed the Black,
brother to Reginald, late king of Man and
the Isles, went to the King of Norway : but
before his arrival, Haco, King of Norway,
had appointed a certain nobleman, called
Huspac, (believed at this time to be the son
of Owmund, but who afterwards turned out
to be a grandson of Somerled by his son
Dougal,) to be king of the Sodorian islands
(the Hebrides and Man), and named him
Haco. This Haco, accompanied with Olave,
Godred Don, the son of Reginald, and many
Norwegians, came to the isles ; but in taking
a certain castle, in the isle of Boot (Bute),
Haco-Uspac was killed with a stone, and
buried in Iona. — Ibid, Sf Anecdotes of Olave
the Black.

" About 70 feet south of the chapel is a red
unpolished stone, beneath which lies a king of
France." Of this king, as we know not who he
w r as, we may with the poet say, —

" How loved, how valued once, avails thee not ;

To whom related, or by whom begot : —

A heap of dust alone remains of thee :

'Tis all thou art — and all the proud shall be /"

I shall now proceed to give the names of a few
of the Chiefs and Chieftains, whose lives were
fully as chivalrous and romantic as those of their
kings.

They were the spirit of night, which carries

118

HISTORICAL A.CCO! NT

the collected blast <>i" heaven in his list when he
intends to pour it on the proves of Morven. The
oaks hear its sound at a distance, and, trembliDg-
for its approach, already shake their leaves.

OF IONA 1 19

CHAPTER VIII,

BRIEF SKETCHES OF THE CHIEFS AND CHIEFTAINS
BURIED IN IONA.

To speak in detail of all the Chiefs and Chieftains
whose remains slumber in Iona, would inevitably
lead to something like a history of the Clans.
I shall therefore content myself with merely giv-
ing the root of each. Dean Munro, already
quoted, says, —

" Within this sanctuarie also lye the maist
pairt of the Lords of the lies, with ther lynage."

Tomb of the Lords of the Isles.
Of this renowned clan it is unnecessary for me
to say any thing. The grandeur and antiquity
of Macdonald has been already fully recorded.
His succession in a direct male line for twenty-
one generations is deduced in Douglas's peerage,
page 357. Macdonald has enjoyed not only the
highest titles and dignities of which subjects of
olden times were capable, but even that of King
of the Isles ; and was often treated as such by
Kings of England and France, and sometimes by
Kings of Scotland, nolens volens.

j 20 HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

Donald. Lord of the Isles, raised iu 1411, in

his own isles, lo, OHO men, at the head of whom
he gave no cold reception to the Bar] of Mar, at

Harlaw. Of the martial achievements of this
clan, indeed, we have several records, so far back
afl a century before the nativity of Christ. CoUa
Bhuathais, Gille-Bride, Somhairle, Dorudd, and

a thousand more, are names well known in history.

'Smairg namhaid d'an noclul iad, "fraoch,
Lomj, Leomhann, craobh, 's lamh-dhearg !"

Tomb of the Macleans*

"A Maclean of Coll appears in armour, with
a sword in his left hand. A Maclean of Duairt,
with armour, shield, and two-handed sword.
And a third of the same name, of the family of
Lochbuy ; his right hand grasps a pistol, his left
a sword." — Penn ant

Gillean and Cailean, two brothers, landed in
Mull. Gillean soon found grace in the eyes of
Macdonald, King of the Isles. We find him, at
the head of his dependents, at the Battle of Largs,
under King Alexander III., the battle which ex-
tirpated the Danes, Haco being defeated with an
army of 20,000 ! Gillise Macilleon, i. e.the son of
Leon (abbreviated Mac'lean), fought at Bannock-
burn, under Bruce. Eachan ruadh nan cath, son

" The name Maclean is metaphorical. It means the
Son of a Lion. The History of this clan is just published.

OF IONA. 121

of Lachlan Lubanach, son of Iain Dubh, son of
Gillecolum, son of Gillise, son of Gillean, com-
manded as Lieutenant-general, under the Earl of
Ross, at the battle of Harlaw in 1411. Hector,
the 9th of Duairt, at the head of his clan, accom-
panied King James IV. to the fatal field of
Flodden, where he sacrificed his own life to save
that of his royal master.

What shall I say ? Time would fail me to tell
of Lachin Bronnach, Eachan Ruadh's son ; of
Iain Garbh, son of Lachin Bronnach ; and of a
countless number of Hectors and Lachlans, down to
Hector the sixteenth generation, who distinguish-
ed himself at the wild battle of Inver Keithing.*

The Tomb of Maclean of C oil.
" A Maclean of Coll appears in armour, with
a sword in his left hand," &c. — Pennant. Of
the warriors who rest here, I need only inform
the visitor, that they were descended from Iain
Garbh, son of Lachin Bronnach of Duart ; the
seventh generation in a direct male line, f Their

* " Thuit Eachunn Ruadh aim an Inbher Cheitein,
Le 'sheaehd ceud deug d'a threun fhuil dhiricli.''

Ian MacAlein.
\ " Tighearna . Clio? tha mi 'g ra'tin,
Eoghan Og, is chan aicheam dhuibh ainm ;
Sar Leathanach priseil,
De na h-uaislean a chinn o Iain Garbli."

J. Macilledn.
M

1 22 HISTORICAL A.CC01 N I

souls were not the little souls that, like a vapour,
hover round the marshy lake, which fears to
ascend the green liill lest the winds meet it there.

They were the stream of uiaiiv tides against their
country's foes, but like the gale that moves the
grass to those who asked their aid.

The Tomb of Maclean of Lochbuy*

" A third of the same name, of the family of
Lochbuy; his right hand grasps a pistol, his left
a sword." — Pennant.

This ceatharnach, most conspicuous in death,
was still more so in life. What Highlander that
does not know the life of Eoghan-a-chinn bhig!
I may not, however, condescend upon particulars.
Let it suffice to inform the traveller, that the
warriors who repose here were from Eachunn
Regannach, son of Iain DubJi, the fourth gene-
ration from Gillean, and brother to Lachin Lu-
banach, of whom the Duairt family, already de-
scribed, are descended. In war they were also
distinguished. Their own bards represent them
in battle as, " growing in their place like a flood
in a narrow vale ;" or, " a whale whom all his
billows follow."

Iona continued to be the sepulture of the Mac-
leans till a very recent epoch. Their bards, even in
the 1 8th century, make it a matter of regret when
any of their chiefs missed being interred here : e.g.

OF IONA. 1 23

" Gtir a goirt learn r'a chluinntinn,
Nach tug sibh 'ur n' ionndrainn
Do dh' Ii mar ri 'mhuinntir," &c.

Gaoir nam ban Muileach.

Thus, likewise another bewails, —
" Nach tug iad do dh' Ii thu,
Mar ri smns 'reachd do shean'a'r." — M. nV Lachin.

Mackinnon's and Macquarie's Tomb,
" Within this sanctuary also lye the maist pairt
of the Lords of the Iales, with ther lynage. Twa
Clan Leans, with ther lynage: M'Kinnon fy
M'Guarie, with ther lynage," &c. — Dean Munro.
Traveller ! to give you the root of those who
enrich the dust of this tomb, I shall require to
bespeak your patience. The Mackinnons and
the Macquaries are the same race. They are
both of the Alpinian family, who, from 834 till
the death of Alexander III., 1285, swayed the
Scottish sceptre, Kenneth the Great, the 69th
king, took the patronymic of Kenneth Mac Alpine
from his brave but murdered father. King
Alpha's third son was called Prince Gregor,
the head of that clan. Prince Gregor had a son
called Donn-Gheal, latinized Dongallus, who in
his turn had a son called Findan, or Fingon;
and this is the root of that princely tribe the
Macfingans, or Mackinnons. James M'Gregor
of that ilk, entered into a bond of friendship with
L. Mackinnon, anno 1571, whereby they, "as

1*2 1 HISTORICAL A.CC01 M

descended of two brothers of auld descent," hound
themselves, by their oaths and subscriptions, to

be perpetual friends to each other, 'Minder all
hazard of disgrace and infamy." A verhathn
COpy of the bond may he seen in Douglas Baron-
age, ]>. 1!)7.*

Macquarie takes his patronymic from Ogha,
a grandson, and Righ, a king. Allan, the third
generation of this surname, was eotemporary with
(li/fean, and fought undeMKing Alexander III.
at the memorable battle of Largs. The tomb of
the Righvcan Alpineach is well known in Iona ;
and, as being the lathers of the royal families of
Bruce, Baliol, and Stewart, and also of the Mac-
gregors, the Mackinnons, Grants, Maenabs, &C,
the visitor may indulge in very profitable reflec-
tion.

'* Their sword was a meteor of heaven — In peace, like
the sun when he looks through a silent shower."

Mackenzie's Tomb.
" On the other side is the tomb and figure of
Abbot Kenneth; — on the floor is the effigy of an
armed knight,'' &c — Pennant*

* Douglas was in error as to the true date of this bond,
which I am informed was in 1671, just a century later than
the date assigned by Douglas.

This seems the proper place to mention, what I have
just been informed of, that in the year 1606, the chiefs of
Mackinnon and Macnab entered into a similar league, and
QU the same ground of mutual descent from one individual.

OF IONA. 1 25

This armed knight represents Mackenzie of
Kintail, of whom I need only say, that he was
descended from Kenneth, son of Colin, which
Colin was brother to Gillean, and son of the Earl
of Kildare, now Duke of Leinster. Ceanntail,
the family possession in the north, was given by
King Alexander to Colin, for his services in the
battle of Largs. This tomb the traveller may
view with a degree of apathy; but the mighty
dead are not unknown in song —

" 'S cinnteach mi d'ar coinneachadh

MacCoinnich mor Chinn-tail ;

Fir laidir, dhana, shomailteach,

De'n f hior-chruaidh air a' foinneachadh, &c."

A. M'JD.

MacleoSJs Tomb.

" On the floor is the figure of an armed knight,
curiously ornamented, and close to it was the
burying place ofM'Leod ofM'Leod" — Steamboat
Comp. p. 175.

To find Iona the place of sepulture of Chiefs,
who lived, and who, it may be presumed, died
also at so great a distance from it, is, of itself,
enough to make it a most interesting island. It
is now universally acknowledged, that the
M'Leods of Scotland were scions of the Norwe-
gian Kings of Man.

Godred Croven, son of Harold the Black, of
the royal family, being appointed sovereign of

I 26 HISTORICAL \< rol NT

Man and the Western Isles by King Harold the

Imperious, COme with a fleet and took possession

of this kingdom, anno 1066, but the superiority

still remained with the Kings of Norway. God-
fired left three sons, Lagmctn, Harota\&ad Olave,
or Amlave, This Olaye, surnamed the Red, we

find king in llo*2. He had a daughter who
married Somhairle MacGillebhride, Thane of
Argyle, and ancestor of the Maedonalds. Thus
thing's went on, one reigning, another dying-, till
King Alexander III., with the fierce elans, hur-
ried the Danes out of Caledonia at least. King
Olave IV., I think, had, by his third marriage, a
son called Leoid, of whom Macleoid.* This Leoid
flourished in the time of the said King Alexander
III., and got from Paul, Sheriff of Sky, the land
of Herries, &c, and from his maternal grandfather,
the Earl of Koss, a part of the barony of Glenelg.
He married the daughter of a Danish knight, by
-whom he got many lands, and two sons, Tor ma id
and Torcul, the one progenitor of Macleod of
Herries, Dunvegan and Glenelg; the other pro-

* I am informed that there is no authority in the Chroni-
cle of Man for this descent of the Macleods, nor does the
name Leoid occur in this Chronicle at all, — and that it is
much more probable this clan derives its origin from the
ancient Jarls of Orkney, who frequently effected settle-
ments in the Northern Hebrides, and in whose family Leoid
or Liod was a common proper name.

OF IONA. 1 27

genitor of Macleod of Lewis, Assint and Cogach.
These two families were ever independent of each
other ; but since the ruin of the house of Lewis
in the reign of James VI., the other house has
been styled Macleods of Macleod. Lewis is re-
presented by Macleod, or rather Macgillechallum
of Rasay. Their biography would be long. The
Highlander who loves " the light of song" must
know a great deal of it,* and must also know that
to this day they and the Macleans have been con-
tinually crossing the breed. — Gv!n cinneadh led.

The Tomb of the Saints.

The first of the order of Columba who received
a tomb in Iona, was Or an. After him that aw-
ful spot JReleig Orain is called. The next, for
ought I can find, was Columba himself. Lord
Buchan informs us that King Aidan, who was
pupil to Columba, caused his remains to be in-
terred in the royal burying-ground.\

The life of Columba has been given by many
hands, yet the plan of this little book demands a
brief sketch of it here.

In the character of Columba, talents, learning,

* «« Na Leodaich am por glan
Cha b'f holach 'ur siol,
Dream Rioghail gun f hotu
Nan Gorsaid, 's nan Sgiath," &c. — Iain Dabh.
t Trans. Antiq. Soc. Vide " Iona.''

1 28 BI8TOBIC w, Atroi \ :

and B constant application to study, make a very
conspicuous figure; but a still more striking part
of it is an early, uniform, and strong spirit of
piety. Far from resting in any measure of sanc-
tity, lie incessantly laboured and longed after
higher and higher degrees of it.

Columba, well aware of the importance of early
piety, paid particular attention to the young :
Hence, when the Saint makes his appearance, the
little children rejoice to see him, and run to meet
him to receive his benediction. If only the elder
children of the family should be presented to him,
he would say : — " Have you not some that are
younger than these ?" They are all sent for, and
little Eachan Bui\ (Fair-haired Hector,) says
Adamnan, when he saw the Saint, ran up to him,
and laid his head on his bosom.

Peace, a necessary fruit of the spirit, was a re-
markable feature in the life of Columba. At the
great council of Drimceat, the succession to the
throne was left to his arbitration; and when
neither clergy nor king could settle a difference
between the two sons of Lugid Lamhdearg,
they came with a numerous train from Ireland to
Iona, where Columba reconciled them, and saved
Ireland from a civil war.*

Columba, like every one who lives under a

* Ulster Annals, 574 ; et Colgan Vit. 5.

OF IONA. 1 29

sense of the presence of a righteous God, was
always faithful. Aoidh, King of Ireland, asked
him once, whether he thought he should be saved?
" You have little chance for that," said Columba,
" unless you expiate the errors of your past life,
by a speedy and sincere turning to God."* He
also, at the risk of his life, excommunicated some
of the nobility of the kingdom, e. g. the sons of
Connel. When any offended himself, he forgave
him ; when any offended God, he prayed for him.f
Tenderness to the poor was not wanting in the
character of Columba. On a certain winter day,
which was excessively cold, he was observed to
be in great distress, and even to weep like a
child. His servant Dermit took the liberty to
ask the cause, and got the following answer : " It
is not without reason, my child, that I am sad:
my monks at Durrough are, at this inclement
season, sadly oppressed by Lasrain, who keeps
them at hard labour ."J His compassion extend-
ed indeed to the very brute creation. A heron
had one day ventured a flight from some of the
remote islands to Iona: by the time it reached
the shore, it was so far exhausted, that it alighted
in the water. Columba ordered one of his monks
to its succour. " Bring it," says he, " to the
nearest house ; feed it, and take all the care you

* Colsan Vit. 5ta. f Adam. 3. 16. % Adam. 1. 29.

130 HISTORIC LL \( col M

can of it for three (lavs, till it recover its strength,

and be able to cross the sea again.** But I must

delist; — the fruit of the tree is the best comment
Upon its quality, and the fruit ol* (olumba's life

has for many ages, afforded a harvest of glory

lor anxious angels to reap.

To mention oil who followed these WOllld he

far too tedious: the traveller may revert to the
Chronicle of events already given.

Traveller ! we shall not certainly quit this
famous Golgotha without rumination — without
self-examination! Here may be read, in very
large characters, — the evil of sin, — the nothing-
ness of terrestrial glory, — the certain end of all
flesh! Here, too, may be read, but dimly, how
wise it is to look forward to a Day of Judgment,
when the trump of God shall shake, nay rend
creation, and ten thousand ages of spirits come
to join their rising bodies in order to begin an
age eternal!

Farewell, Iona! Sure the genius of religion
hovers still over thy awful tombs!

INCH, or properly INN1S KENNETH.

This island I consider virtually part and par-
cel of Iona. To overlook it, therefore, would be

* Pinkerton in Adam. I. 4\K

OF IONA. 131

doing injustice to the antiquary and the man of
feeling. " Romance," says Dr Johnson, " does
not often exhibit a scene that strikes the imagin-
ation more than this little desert, in these depths
of western obscurity." — Journey.

" Inch Kenneth," says Dr M'Culloch, " has a
claim on the notice of every one who visits this
country. The ruins of Sir Allan Maclean's
house, with the chapel, the cross, and the tombs,
are still to be seen." — Vol. I. p. 527.

Innis Kenneth was for centuries a seminary,
subordinate on Iona. The histories of the two
islands are indeed inseparable. Here, as well as
in Iona, are entombed saints and chieftains, es-
pecially of the royal race of Alpin. " The chapel
here is about sixty feet in length, and thirty in
breadth. On one side of the altar is a bas-relief
of the blessed Virgin, and behind it lies a little
bell, which, though cracked, and without a clap-
per, has remained there for ages, guarded only
by the venerableness of the place. The ground
round the chapel is covered with gravestones of
Chiefs and Ladies, and still continues to be a
place of sepulture." — Johnson.

Although Innis Kenneth had had no college in
it, Dr Johnson's account of his reception were
enough to make it classic ground. So much de-
lighted was he here, that, as the reader may re-
collect, he composed a Latin poem upon the

132 HT8TORICA1 ACCOUNT

occasion. Of this poem, I <;'ot, before I had
conceived the thought of writing these pages at

all, a free translation, from the polite and most

accomplished late Sir 1). K. Sandford. I think I
may use the freedom to submit it to the reader,
without the ceremony of asking liberty of thai
gianl of liberty. Bui in order to the better un-
derstanding of it, I may first refresh the reader's
memory, in the Doctor's own words: — "The
island's only inhabitants were Sir Allan Maclean,
and two young ladies, his daughters, with their
servants." And again, a little farther on: — " In
the afternoon, Sir Allan reminded us that the
day was Sunday, which he never suffered to pass
without some religious distinction, and invited us
to partake in his acts of domestic worship ; which,
I hope, neither Mr Boswell nor myself will be
suspected of a disposition to refuse. The elder
of the Indies read the English service? This
paves the way for the poem.

" Glasgow College, Jan. 29, 1833.
" Sir, — I am not quite sure, from the terms of
your letter, whether you wish the lines by John-
son, to which you call my attention, and which
are to be found in Bosw r eU's Journal of the Tour
to the Hebrides, to be translated by me into prose
or verse. Perhaps the best way is to give you
a version in each.

OF IONA. 133

Insula Sancti Kennethi.

Parva quidem regio, sed religione priorum

Nota, Caledonian panditur inter aquas, &c, &c.

INCH KENNETH.

* A spot, small indeed, but famous for the piety
of it former inhabitants, appears amid the Scot-
tish waves; where Kenneth is said to have re-
claimed by his voice fierce tribes, and to have
untaught them the worship of false gods. Hither
borne over the green seas with gentle course, I
desired to learn the novelties of the place. There
Maclean reigned in a lowly shed — Maclean, en-
nobled by great ancestors. One cottage con-
tained, together with their father, two maidens,
whom love might fancy goddesses of the waters :
Yet did not they lurk, an uncultured race, in chill
caverns, such as the savage dweller on the Danube
possesses. There were not wanting the soft
solaces of a leisurely life — whether books or the
lyre. That day hath dawned, which those who
are instructed in the law of Heaven, bid human
hopes and cares flee far from them. Amid the
murmurs of Ocean, the offices of sacred worship
ceased not to be observed ; here also piety has
met with observance. What although a woman
turned the pages of the Book of the Priest! —
'Tis the pure breast that makes prayers legiti-

134 HISTORIC \i. LCCOl m

mate. Whither <lo I wander farther? That
which is everywhere Bought for is here; — lure is
safe repose — here, too, is honourable love.
"I will now endeavour to versify it.

1 Scarce spied amid the West-sea foam,

Yet once Religion's chosen home,

Appears the isle, whose savage race,

By Kenneth's voice, was won to grace.

O'er glassy tides I thither flew,

The wonders of the spot to view.

In lowly cottage, great Maclean

Held there his high ancestral reign,

With daughters fair, whom love might deem

The Naiads of the Ocean-stream :

Yet not in chilly cavern rude,

Were they, like Danube's lawless brood ;

But all that charms a polish'd age,

The tuneful lyre, the learned page,

Combin'd to beautify and bless

That life of ease and loneliness.

Now dawn'd the day, whose holy light

Puts human hopes and cares to flight ;

Nor 'mid the hoarse waves' circling swel.

Did worship here forget to dwell.

What though beneath a woman's hand

The sacred volume's leaves expand,

No need of priestly sanction there —

The sinless heart makes holy prayer !

Then wherefore -further seek to rove,

While here is all our hearts appi^ve, —

Repose, security, and love ?'

"D. K. Sandford.'

This amiable chief. Sir Allan, is buried in

OF IONA.

135

Innis Kenneth. The thought of the great Eng-
lish moralist joining the Highland Chieftain in
the praises of God, in this sequestered little island,
and the "harpsichord," is indeed a romantic
thought

THE END.

GLASGOW:

■ University.

Just Published, Price only 2$. lid.
A

TREATISE

ON SHEEP;

WITH

THE BEST MEANS OF THEIR IMPROVEMENT,

GENERAL MANAGEMENT,

AND THE

TREATMENT OF THEIR DISEASES.

WITH

A CHAPTER ON WOOL,

AM)

HISTORY OF THE WOOL TRADE.

By AMBROSE BLACKLOCK,

SURGEON, DUMFRIES.

" Sheep have golden feet, and wherever the print of them appeari the Mil it
turned int-^ gold."— Swkdish Proverb.

GLASGOW:

W. It. M'PHUN, PUBLISHER, 86, TRONGATEj

N. H. COTES, LONDON ; W. W"v^r » ro miNBURGH.